So - Hurricane Harvey has dumped trillions of gallons of water on Houston. Many families have had their homes flooded. This flooding in Houston is beyond any flooding ever seen in Houston. Places that have never flooded have water in them. I used to watch events similar to this and feel so bad for the people who had their lives turned upside down. I felt bad but then would say well - this is so far away ... what could I do?? Then I would turn the channel and move on.
Well - with hurricane Harvey this was not possible for me to do. I am from Houston. I have seen flooding. I have experienced driving in high water and have lost a vehicle to my pride in believing I could drive in high water. My mom and sisters live there. My mom and one sister had their home flooded and for some reason this event is a punch in the gut for me. In a very real way it has thrust me back to when Jan died and my life was upside down. Here it is my mom and sister have lost their home and two vehicles. In a single night a family of five went from having comforts of this world to being homeless. Their kids stripped of everything normal. While I didn't experience losing a home with Jan I did experience the same feeling of the continued thinking of "48 hours ago everything was normal". I did experience the pain of my kids having such pain. This time I am just an observer... it is so painful. I don't know another way to describe it. In a way I am reliving the pain. I just want to fix all the flooding and issues in Houston. I wish I could just wave a magic wand and fix it all.... to put things back to normal. I know God works in mysterious ways and that all these painful events are for our benefit but still. It is painful.
My sister is keeping a sense of humor in all of this and that is good. I just have to remember to take my own advice when all of this happened - just take 1 breath, 1 minute, 1 hour, 1 day at a time. Think about what you have control over and not what you don't. That simple advice helped me function in life after Jan died.
So - donate to the red cross or other charity that is helping those in Houston who have lost so much. I believe it will be a while before Houstonians are back to normalcy.
