Sometimes ideas for blogs are hard to come by, especially now that I have been writing this for a few years. And then sometimes they hit you head on.

My daughter and I were driving back home from Eastern Iowa on Sunday, May 7. It was, I believe, the warmest day yet this spring with temperatures reaching the high 80s and a good amount of humidity. Perfect conditions for a late afternoon storm.

As we watched dark clouds form to the north of us, my daughter was re-telling the story of the day she, her sisters and a friend had made this same drive in August of 2020. That day, they unknowingly drove into a devastating derecho, which ultimately damaged miles and miles of farm ground and virtually any structure in its path with its 125-mph straight-line winds.

Our forecast on Sunday was for severe thunderstorms with high winds and hail. Nothing a Midwesterner hasn’t driven through before. We laughed and sang along with the radio as we proceeded toward a cloud that looked like a shelf.

“Should we go somewhere?” my daughter asked as I kept driving. “Where would we go?” I replied. We agreed we might as well continue.

There weren’t many raindrops before the hail began. And the wind. We slowed to a stop, hazards flashing on the side of the road as far as one could see ahead and behind. (Which wasn’t that far, to be honest, because visibility was near nil.)

The next 10 minutes were frightening, anxiety-inducing and long. Every ounce of me wanted to forge ahead to get it over sooner. After all, others were still driving. Luckily, I paid attention in physics class all those years ago and knew the force and damage would be much worse — and more dangerous — if I didn’t just stop.

Isn’t life just like that? You experience things — sometimes they aren’t very pleasant — and you just want to get through it as fast as you can. After all, if you stop, you have to experience it all. Maybe it’s pain or grief or anxiety or depression. Human nature is to get it over with and move on.

But what happens? We end up with unresolved feelings that manifest in all sorts of different ways — rarely positive. We delay the process of grief. We suffer in silence with anxiety or depression that could be treated if we would just slow down. Or, better yet, stop and deal with it. Because in the long run, you would be better off.

May is Mental Health Awareness month. I know many who are dealing with unresolved feelings after the pandemic, and many more who are suffering as the markets in our industry are resulting in catastrophic economic loss. You don’t have to power through. You can, and should, stop. Help is available. You can even reach out to me, and I will be happy to help you. I suffered in silence and powered through for way too long before getting help for my anxiety and depression. And I hate to see anyone else go through that.

At the end of the day, we were fortunate. I’d like to think it had something to do with my strategy to stop and weather the storm. We lost no glass (unlike about 80% of the cars we saw pulled over at the next rest area). We were safe. And the car … well, that’s what insurance is for.

Just stop

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