Shelter from the Storm

Memories keep surfacing like oil stains in flood water

I went to the Writing.Com store to buy GPs and as I scrolled through, enjoying my look at the newest items, I remembered that I once owned a W.com clipboard and pens.

I lost the board and the pens in the flood.*sigh*

I tell myself that it's selfish of me to long for my destroyed material things when over a thousand people lost their lives in the storm and when the levees breached. Still, I just miss some of my things...

With such widespread devastation, I continue to search for the greater lessons I might need to learn as a Karina survivor. All of the clergy throughout the city like to point to the fact that "Katrina" means "cleansing," so I try to figure out what part I might've played in bringing such a destructive force down on so many. I take even less things in life for granted, these days. I don't gossip, but, then again, I haven't really gossiped since high school. I try to be kind to all I meet. So why couldn't my family and I be spared the pain of losing just about everything we'd owned?

Maybe that's the greater lesson. Race, culture, class--none of that mattered when Katrina arrived. She destroyed without discrimination and ironically caused communities, cities, states, and people to come together. Unity in New Orleans could never be a bad thing.

During quiet moments, I'll sometimes catch myself asking "why? why? why?" Otherwise, I'm okay with coping with the loss of stuff and suddenly having life turned upside down. In the end, I know that I'll be okay, that we'll be okay. It's just that sometimes I want life to rewind to its pre-Katrina days, while other times I want life to fast forward so my family and I will have replaced all that is replaceable. Still, we're lucky...the storm and breaches destroyed about ten years of economic growth, but my family and I estimate that it'll take us about another year or two before we can live as comfortable as we did before Katrina.

But sometimes, I just want my Writing.Com clipboard and pens back...