More than a championship: What this means for us

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For the first time since April 27, waking up to the sound of rain didn’t mean waking up to thoughts of the tornado.

Arguments of whether the Crimson Tide deserved to be in the BCS Championship Game aside, it was something the people of Tuscaloosa needed. These days as I drive through town, Bryant-Denny Stadium looms large almost anywhere I go. That used to be more of a symbolic thing, with the idea of football and the championship-winning legacy of Coach Paul ‘Bear’ Bryant  typically at the forefront of fans’ minds year-round.

But now the stadium is literally visible almost anywhere you go in Tuscaloosa thanks to the hundreds of trees and buildings ripped down on April 27. I drive past Rosedale Courts, where numerous people lost their lives, where only recently bulldozers have leveled ground that used to be covered with project housing, and I can see it. From the blank slab of concrete where the building Bobby used to work in stood, I can see it. I haven’t looked for it from Alberta City, one of the hardest hit areas, but I’d imagine it’s visible from there, too.

For months that huge concrete structure looming in the distance almost anywhere you went has stood as an inescapable symbol of what’s been lost.

Last night, it became a symbol of what’s been won.

It was a great game, a testament to the fact that you can be beaten and still come out on top in the end. It was a message the people of Tuscaloosa needed. We’re all tired. Tired of wondering if today will be the day it happens again. Tired of not being able to drive through the intersection of 35th and Greensboro without looking out over I-359 and thinking about that massive funnel cloud bearing down on the city. Tired of the ongoing recovery process that seems as if it will never end.

But this championship is about so much more for our city than winning a football game. It’s a sign that things can not only be normal again, but they can be good.

It means so much more this year than it ever has.

Roll Tide.

My word for 2012: JOY

A few weeks ago, Bobby and I met up for our weekly lunch date at Pearl Garden, one of our favorite local Chinese places. We always get a laugh out of the fortune cookies (We add “in bed” to the end. Do it. It will revolutionize your fortune cookie experience.), but this time I was a little caught off guard by the fortune in mine.

“When the flowers bloom, so will great joy in your life.”

I think we probably still joked a little bit, and Bobby teased me that maybe I’d be pregnant again in the spring (That’s a big, fat NO.). But that little cookie prophecy has stuck with me. I can hardly take my mind off it.

Last year was really, really hard. Have you ever seen an old, weather-beaten wooden house that has been abandoned for years … so abandoned that no one’s even bothered to tear it down?

That’s how the last year has made my soul feel.

I am weary. I have reached points where I wasn’t sure my emotions could handle any more. I have bent, but I. have. not. broken.

The past year has been spent clawing my way out of the dirt, sometimes with bare hands. I have mud under my fingernails and smudges on my face, but I can see daylight now, and it makes me yearn for the sunshine even more.

Yes, I’m tired, but I am hopeful. I am ready to see mourning turned to dancing and sorrow turned to joy. And that’s my prayer for 2012.

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