One month ago today, Helene blew through town and took my words away.
I wanted to use "awestruck" as my title. It's a prettier word and certainly applies in many ways, but "dumbstruck" is even more true.
dumb*struck- adjective: made silent by astonishment
Astonishment.
Yes.
I've been using the term "shell shock" a lot, too. Because, around here, it looks - and feels - like a hundred thousand pipe bombs have gone off.
From the linked definition
…a reaction to the intensity of the bombardment and fighting that produced helplessness, which could manifest as panic, fear, flight, or an inability to reason, sleep, walk, or talk.
Bombardment.
Yes, exactly.
My daughter sometimes calls me a "yapper" - in fact, one time, she crowned me Mayor of Yapper Island. I'm sure she means it affectionately. (I show my appreciation by adding whatever new lingo she introduces me to into my own vocabulary. )
But, lately, I've just needed to be quiet for awhile, to go slow with me.
I haven't had the words, or energy, and especially not the clarity to do much more than take one day at a time.
And that has been exactly what's been happening.
They just keep arriving, like waves at high tide.
The sun continues to rise, day after day, again and again, one at a time.
Birthdays came amidst fallen trees.
Life resumed with or without power or internet connection.
It has been a slow walk back to life as we know it, not to mention adjusting to ways of life that are new to us.
Our very terrain has changed.
There have been complaints, sure - but oh, there has been so much community.
I've been trying to take it all in.
I've lived long enough to understand the forgetfulness of man.
Sadly, eventually, after the dust clears and the debris is hauled away, our best behavior may be tucked away until the next disaster, like so many post nine-eleven American flags.
I wish the cuts needn't be so deep for our kindnesses to surface.
So I build a little altar of remembrance, using words as altar stones.
When I meander through my history, as I am want to do, these little altars remind me of God's goodness in my life, and the glowing potential of man.
Today, a month after the storm, I'm starting to find where they've been scattered.
I'm picking them up to lay them back down.
One of the first things I found to say was : There's a tree on our shed, but not on our heads.
We have a lot to be grateful for. (yes, there was rhyming, much to my own chagrin)
Maybe I'll have more to say soon - maybe I'll write about writers again this Wednesday. I don't know, we'll see what tomorrow holds.
"After all, tomorrow is another day" ~Scarlet (with only DVDs to watch for a while, Riley has been to Tara and back again... and met with the wizard of Oz)