I Don’t Wanna Die in Spearfish, South Dakota!

My ex and I moved to Spearfish, South Dakota in the ‘80s. Super small town but beautiful country. So different from the green forests where we both grew up.

At 8am it was around 100 degrees with no humidity to speak of. Beautiful, bright wavy heat that lasted until mid-day when the clouds rolled in. It darkened and began to rain, then rain harder, then darken weirdly green until the tornado siren went off. My ex stood outside under the porch and proclaimed he didn’t see anything.  I, formerly from the land of frequent tornados, ran around gathering water, a flashlight, cheese & crackers and a blanket to take to the storm cellar outside.

Let’s pause and ponder why the entrance to the storm cellar was outside about 50 yards from the house? Any ideas about that? It’s really common out West.

Anyhow, I love hail, the tiny jewels falling on the ground. I got nervous when the hail turned to golf ball size. I admit to some screaming when the hail became baseball size. There was no getting to that flipping storm cellar without some serious bodily damage.

Our Dodge Dart was now sporting a broken windshield and hail sized polka dots. The electricity winked out. And then we heard it: the deep rumbling train of the tornado. All the windows on the north side of the house were breaking as the wind threw the hail at us. We grabbed a mattress and piled into a closet where the pipes ran down from the apartment above. We lay underneath that mattress as the hail knocked the plaster off the wall by our heads. It was then I decided, “I don’t wanna die in Spearfish, South Dakota!”

I thought about all the things I hadn’t done while the building creaked and shook around us, all the time I’d wasted just wandering through my life. It was the beginning of the journey that led me to you.

We keep waiting for the right time to do what we love, slogging through icky jobs to pay bills, staying on long after we should. We keep telling ourselves we’ll do it later. Is this your mantra? ‘Cause I think we all know the truth: there may or may not be a later, right?

Here is what I tell my people. If you start now, even if it’s a mincing step, you’ll know you’re walking toward your heart’s dreams. You’ll be on the way to your future.

What’s the dream you have and what’s keeping you back? Leave a comment and let me know. I’m interested in what you have to say. And if you want to work with me to explore those dreams, email me at zain.mackeycoaching@gmail.com