Back to Basics.

As we continue to clean up the damages and pray for those more affected by the devastating storm system & tornados here in VA…I am reminded by the fact that electricity, water & easy access to food are a luxury & a privilege. As much as it is inconvenient & a nuisance, we can survive. It really makes you get back to basics. Appreciate what you have.

Gas & groceries are scarce. Our grocery store had to throw out all of their frozen food & various other items – leaving shelves bare and not many options so you can’t be choosy. Who knows when they will be able to restock. Gas stations running on generators are busy with customers searching for water & food, yet they cannot power the pumps. Cars abandoned on the side of the road because they ran out of gas. Phone lines are down, cell phone towers preventing calls and texting to check on family. Instagram, Pinterest & Amazon went down. Even Facebook is quiet (yet status’ are all about the outage). It’s eerily like a movie about the apocolypse.

The community has come together to assist each other, lend a helping hand in removing trees that fell on homes and blocked roadways, cleaning up yards, rebuilding barns that 70mph winds leveled, put out house fires that lightening started, store their food in a neighbors fridge so all won’t be lost, providing cooling shelters & showers, checking on the elderly, disabled & ill.

We went thru a similar  with Hurricane Irene last year – which I vividly remember since it caused monsoon rainstorms in Boston, delaying my flight to DC, then canceling my flight from DC to Richmond, causing me to find a hotel at the last minute along with every other passenger at the airport, rent a car the next morning to drive to Richmond only to find no power or gas there. I ended up having to pay the car rental company over $9 a gallon for gas and there was no where to get food, phones were down, atm didn’t work, credit card machines were down. I arrived home to no power, no water, no food and a disaster area. I had to rough it & live off the grid for a few days, but…those were little inconveniences compared to what many others endured. I survived with minimal damage and for that I am thankful.

It reminds us that we are NOT in control. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. We must get right back up, adjust, clean up the mess if we can, not dwell on our losses but instead offer a helping hand to those in need far greater than us.