Having spent most of my life in Southern California, tornado warnings are not something I am accustomed to and definitely not something I am fond of. So this morning (a few hours before my alarm clock went off, thanks to my dogs) when I found out my county was listed as one of those under a tornado warning, peace was not the first thing that flooded my body.

After putting my 100 pound Golden Retriever, Murphy, in my daughter’s bed (that is where he sleeps when we have storms – it provides comfort for both of them) I went back to my own bed and tried to go to sleep. Since my husband is out of town I had no where to direct my many tornado questions.

I remembered a friend and former weather man saying that right before tornadoes hit everything gets calm. So, I figured that as long as it was raining hard I was in good shape.

Just as I started to fall asleep the rain stopped. My mind immediately went to what I should do next. Do, I wake my daughter up and do we go downstairs into the laundry room? Will we fit in there with the dogs? How long will we have to stay in there? How will I know if a tornado is coming or not? Will my Blackberry still work? Will I be able to get an updated weather report on it? Should I take food in there with us? What about water? What about my computer? If a tornado hits our house and takes my computer all my work is gone. Will I have enough time to unplug it and get it downstairs?

At this point I remembered that animals have a great sixth sense about them. They always know when something like this is going to happen. So, I decided I’d just go to sleep and trust that if a tornado is coming my dogs will wake me up.

Then it hit me, my dogs aren’t even in my room. They are hiding in my daughter’s room!

“Ok God, you’ll have to come up with some other way to let me know what I should do.” Just as I finished saying that I heard the most amazing sound. I’ve heard this before so I knew exactly what it was. It was a chorus of birds singing in the trees outside my home. I knew that if the birds were singing and not taking cover everything must be okay. They are smart animals. They live outside and they’d know when it was safe. I can trust them.

So, to the melody of a beautiful choir I rested in my bed and fell fast asleep … until the alarm clock went off.