Everybody loves to talk about the weather. Garrison Keillor loves to talk about "the winter of '65." He says that in describing the storms of that year, truth is only the starting point. The snow, the wind, the cold temperatures, yup, it was a miserable year, 1965. Keillor said that one night, it snowed so hard that he had to drive with his car door open so that he could follow the tracks in the snow; and he drove two miles before he realized that the track he was following was made by his own front tire.

Here's Another: In November of 1940, the Mother of All Blizzards struck Minnesota with a vengeance. That autumn day started out balmy enough, but in the early afternoon, the temperature plummeted and the blizzard roared. The Twin Cities got 17 inches of snow; 27 inches in St. Cloud. Farmers were caught unprepared in their fields, and hunters were stranded in their duck blinds. In all, 49 people died in Minnesota, while 59 sailors died on Lake Superior. And everyone who survived The Armistice Day Blizzard will tell you the same thing; that the storm came out of nowhere.

It truth, most storms do. Even in an age with Doppler radar and SkyMax 5 and trained meteorologists, storms are not always predictable. When they arrive unexpectedly, they can wreak havoc in our lives. And yet, the greatest storms in life have nothing to do with low pressure systems or cold fronts. The greatest storms come through the sudden twists and turns of our own lives. One day you go to the doctor's office for a routine exam and the next day your life is turned upside down by the results. Or your marriage is humming along just smoothly until one day your spouse tells you they want a divorce. Or you struggle to keep your head just above water financially, and then the boss announces a downsizing plan. Or a child gets sick, or a parent dies, or there is a fire, or there is a family fight. Suddenly, a storm hits you with a vengeance, and your life takes a dramatic and serious turn. The one common thread in each of these circumstances is that you didn't see the storm coming…just like the Armistice Day Blizzard of 1940.