There has been so much tragedy from the recent storm directly impacting our neighbors to the south and east of us and ourselves to a much lesser degree.  It is hard to know what to say in situations like this. We give all we can and do all we can. Jackson County people are even now gathering supplies that are needed and they will be transported to east Tennessee. People from far and wide have come together to help, to feed, to clothe, to offer shelter. We cannot help but be moved by such destruction and tragedy.  Our emotions are ragged and raw, even those of us untouched by the brunt of the storm. It is in such times that our hearts reach with everything in us toward the hand of another who is hurting. The worst of times often brings out the best of who we are. We know again that we belong to one another, that we are brothers and sisters, cousins and kin, beyond blood lines.  We remember that family ties bind us to all humanity and that all suffering children are our own. 

In other words: 

Who are we

When all is stripped away?

When winds shatter

Waters tatter

All our trappings?

Shred our psyche

Denude us of dignity, decency

Humble us back to human and beyond.

Who are we

When reduced to necessity

We shake and tremble?

Our measure meaningless,

Our treasures thrown aside,

Tossed on the tide,

Tangled in tragedy.

Our arrogance answered 

In one swift breath

One shrug of wind and water.

Something should be said

Of bodies floating

At the edge of our awareness

Unnamed, unknown.

But we are shattered, we are shamed,

Cannot know them,

Cannot hold them,

(someone’s mother, someone’s child)

Not even in our minds;

Lest we slip beneath our sorrow.

Internal levies hold back loss, tears, terror;

Fragile within us, filled to bursting.

We see ourselves in other eyes 

Another day perhaps.

We cringe and cling and grasp 

At all things normal

And cannot cry.

“They should have gone.”

“They should have known.”

They didn’t.  They did.

Doesn’t matter.

They are adrift.  We are adrift,

Carried in their wake.

They hold our illusions before us,

Reflected in eyes

Emptied of all but the next breath;

Illusions shattered, uprooted, adrift, 

Unadorned 

Without pretense, provison, pomp.

Only circumstance.

Theirs.

Ours.

…..but for the grace….

We sigh,

Helpless, overwhelmed, astonished

Agonized and ineffectual.

Close our eyes and shake out shadows.

Carry on.

Changed, touched, moved

Beyond words…………………………..