Just a week into being de-housed and already I'm looking forward to being settled back in to my little hobbit house, unpacking all over again and writing til I make sense of all that's happened. For the short while I was in the shelter, I got a taste of what the victims of Katrina felt and thought- the cold impersonal shock of being one among many unfortunates tossed together in rows of cots. But what made it okay was the little kindnesses we instinctively offered, the sharing, the cooperating to do what someone else can't and someone else doing what you can't, for each other. Humans are pretty damn good, given the chance.
I've laughed more in the past week than I have in a long while. A United Way volunteer asked how I could laugh in it all yesterday, very seriously. And I asked how couldn't you? It's all so ironic and ridiculous! 4 months ago I barely escaped a huge fire, and here I barely escaped a huge flood! It's like I'm in a Final Destination movie! What's next? I've already seen famine (the 80s) and plague (also the 80s)... not locusts..not zombies...not giant monsters nor fire-breathing death dragons, so I guess there's more to see. I'm beginning to understand Bilbo Baggins a bit more personally.
And I'm incredibly lucky. All I lost were some carpets and a bed (it absorbed whatever nasty funkiness the rug below held). Some of my neighbors lost everything they'd ever owned. How many get thru these things with so little damage and land in such a welcoming soft spot, among lovely Buddhists? I've made a great new friend, gotten to see how really terrific some old friends are, and am now sitting in a comfortable bamboo chair with my feet up, typing on the laptop of a young woman I've known since she was 8, looking at the furniture we scraped down Friday to paint for her 4 year-old daughter's new bedroom makeover. I should be crying? I don't think so.
I do hope I'm back home for some of the fall. Halloween is a favorite holiday and I had the porch all decorated in my mind. We'll see. Stranger things have happened and I'm not unused to miracles.
MYSTERIOUS GARDEN
1 year ago
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3 comments:
'Always look on the bright side of life, whistle. whistle,...'
I do believe you picked the above as a desert island disc ;-)
Thinking of you with love,
Annie
My oh my, despite it all, you maintain an upbeat air of positivity.
And I know that in some of the most adverse of situations, I have had some of the best laughs, possible.
Indeed, you are clear demonstration of finding positive aspects of what can be perceived as just a negative. Well done, you!
With respect and admiration, Gary :)
Good for you. If you can maintain your sense of humor, the absurdities of life can't defeat you. My kinda gal.
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