I lived in northern California for a year without experiencing any earthquake activity. I’m kind of glad for that since they can be pretty scary on the West Coast, but was a little disappointed I had “missed my chance.” I was unaware of fault lines in the Missouri vicinity until early this morning, when our whole house started shaking. We could hear it rattling, and our bed - with us in it - felt like the “magic” beds you might feed a few quarters in a cheap hotel room. We ran downstairs to look for any clues out the front door, thinking in our half-awake state perhaps a big truck had rumbled by or a plane was flying very low overhead, but found nothing. We headed back to bed once the shaking subsided, our hearts and minds racing. Christian told me about the New Madrid fault very familiar to St. Louisans, and we decided it must have been an earthquake or possibly a big explosion somewhere that caused a shock wave. The lack of emergency sirens had us pretty convinced it was the former. After a couple more hours’ sleep, I had to get up for work, and Christian checked the news to confirm our suspicion: Earthquake measuring 5.2 rattles St. Louis region. Is it wrong to be a little exhilarated this morning?

I’ve hunkered down for a category 5 hurricane (Andrew) in Florida, seen and breathed the effects of wildfire (Hayman) and dug out after blizzards in Colorado, and now I’ve felt an earthquake in Missouri. While I’ve seen the sky turn green (also in CO), I’ve never actually seen a tornado, and I’ve never been anywhere near a tsunami. I’m happy to live the rest of my life without adding the last two to my list, but I still think it’s pretty cool I’ve experienced such a wide variety of natural phenomena without personally experiencing any significant damage. I have seen what they can do, however: I participated in clean-up teams in the areas hardest hit by Andrew, and cared for evacuated horses during the Hayman fire. Sometimes it’s good to remind ourselves that we are not masters of this earth, but stewards.