My Thoughts

Relationships in Chaos??

Extreme situations tend to make people bond together more than they would otherwise.
True?
True.
So what does that say for my relationships when the majority of my life in the recent past could be considered an extreme situation?
Working 12-15-24 hour days at a shelter with (at on point) 7,000 evacuees- mostly from New Orleans- with some of the saddest stories I've ever heard...
(Is there anything more devastating than losing everything you have to something that you have no control over???) So many people missing families....what if they didn't make it????
so many families already knowing their loved ones in fact didn't make it...
Trying to find some order in the madness and chaos of so many people in the most desperate situations they've ever been in.
What can I say to soothe the pain? To give hope?
Absolutely nothing.
Stressful times for everyone involved...
including the volunteers such as myself.
(More about those details in future blogs)

Seems very natural in a situation such as this to want to bond with someone- to need to have regular human conversation- to have someone to relax with- someone who knows what you are going through. Despite any details of our "normal" lives-
doesn't matter.
Despite what we "usually" do, or who our friends are, or who we think we are outside of this experience-
We are here. We are together.
I've known him one month and it feels like one year. He knows more about me than some of my friends back home ever will. We've talked more seriously about life than I ever cared to, but somehow he brings it out of me.
(Is it the situation, or is it him?)
He compliments me. Says wonderful things about who I am, who I want to be.
Obviously cares so much already...
I do too.
Respect him for everything that he is, for how he is with me, for how I see him with other people.
Can't imagine this experience without him.

Comes time to go home...
don't know how to let it go. Don't want to yet.
Decide to stay a few more weeks.
Another hurricane on the way---
They definitely still need us.
I definitely still need him.







Those who wander are not always lost...