Living the Sweet Life : “It was the best of times…in that we have come together to make each other whole… It was the worst of times….in that we have seen and lived through such a storm that created devastating loss.
Well my friends…. it’s been an ordeal. Never when I went to the Appalachian mountains as a small child and walked through the upside down house at the Wizard of OZ amusement park did I ever think that I would sleep through tornados and find my neighborhood turned upside down. Never did I think that I would ever strip naked and bathe in a cold swimming pool about to turn green and consider my self “clean enough.” Never did I think I could survive for 7 long days without power or running water, hauling buckets of green pool water into the toilets to flush like Game of Thrones…. never ever never! I also never thought I had so many guardian angels!
For many of us there were a lot of first times and we hope last time experiences over the past few days. We saw our friends loose their homes, their cars and heard of families even loosing their children. Our uncomfortable situation seemed to pale in comparison. It was uncomfortable and at times unbearable but it made us stronger and we can say we lived through it!
Our experience began Saturday evening as the power was shut off and around 9pm our neighbors offered their generator. Had they not insisted we take it we would have lost all of our food and not been able to stay though the stormy next few days. The tornados had done significant damage to the roof as evidenced by swelling sheetrock in the dinning room that Brian promptly poked a hole in with a skewer to let it drain….eventually it collapsed all over the hard wood floor but had we not babysat it would have been a dining room filled with water. Then the pictures started crashing out of the sheetrock onto the floor! That was scary cause ya’ll know I have some large portraits like everywhere so I really did not know what was going to happen next! Then I was sitting on the couch trying to get some light since my house is dark and with no power even darker, when I felt a SPLASH! I looked up and the entire window sill was dripping water coming in through the wall onto the couch and floor. This water became a wall as the rains did not subside and we funneled it into a tarp into a chest cooler and had to dump it every four hours. Again, had we not stayed the entire downstairs would have been under water! My poor cats… they were on the side porch where the men have their bible study and cigars and it looked like the movie The Money Pit. We placed buckets everywhere to catch the water but despite all of that the furniture and beautiful wood paneled walls were damaged beyond repair. You see below what Sasha did the first opportunity to see sun…she stretched herself across the patio without a care in the world thankful to not be cooped up in the soupy porch. After 7 days the power came back on and Saturday night when I went to take a bath for the first time in a week… there was a rather plump spider in the tub. I called Brian in to remove it and take it outside. However, around 10:30 pm while I was in the kitchen I felt something go by my foot. I looked down onto a well lit floor to see a SNAKE slithering past me into the dinning room! Brian was asleep… James Edward was called to watch it so I could strap on my boots and grab a rake… Ya’ll I beat the life out of that snake. He did not stand a chance! I don’t normally kill things but I had had enough.
What I have not had enough of is the kindness and beautiful spirit of humanity that I have witnessed during these trying times. My neighbors offered their homes to bathe and did our laundry. The generator donation saved us losing so much more. Countless friends texted and called and offered to come get us, to house us, and feed us and we will never forget their generosity and willingness to help. Father Mike texted me every single day and checked in on us. On Sunday he explained that when we come together like we have it’s actually Jesus showing up through us. Like a band of guardian angels… Kelli Brown, Ryan Karnowski, and Terry Saenz dropped in with notepads in hand and assured me that in no time things would be right again and new!
Before all this started Brian quoted from Charles Dickens A tale of Two Cities when the first drops of rain began… little did he realize just how appropriate they would become for each of us. You will recall it begins with “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness.” I believe I speak for all of us in saying that prior to the storm we all seemed to be bickering about senseless stuff. Now we have come together and shown a goodness that we all have deep inside to care for each other. Let’s keep the best of what we are inside close to our hearts and with thanksgiving try to always remember how to treat each other even when things are all going ok!
Take Care of YOU!
