Heartbreak in the East: Hope in the Homeland

This last week has been a hard one for me. Living in the heart of hurricane land, I don't love when a storm comes along, but I don't worry too much.

Florida houses are typically built to withstand a category 3 hurricane (meaning winds as high as 130 mph and crazy rain for days), but the rest of the nation doesn't build to that standard.

As I watched the trajectory of Helene & listened to it being upgraded to a category 4, I knew the results wouldn't be pretty. Although grateful this storm missed us initially, my attitude changed when I heard about Tennessee and North Carolina. Georgia and South Carolina are dealing with the fallout too. I wished the hurricane had turned and hit us more fully because we have the response, the infrastructure, the attitude to face big scary storms and carry on.

Our governor put all the preemptive processes in place -- emergency workers, supply routes, road and electricity line repair -- but he couldn't do that for the other states. 

Especially the ones inland.

The stories... Oh the stories. I was drowning in heartache. (This is why I can't read WWII books, folks.) Two dams were oversaturated and burst, flooding whole towns. Family members lost. Livelihoods swept away. An inability to communicate with loved ones. I went to bed with tears in my eyes and prayers on my lips.

Answers come too. They didn't come from the federal government but from governors of neighboring states, from people whose hearts broke like mine who own helicopters, from good Samaritans who donated cash and goods. Desantis sent aid to the hardest hit areas FROM Florida and I cheered at every new development. Last I heard, he sent a brigade of road workers with bridge materials to help people trapped in the North Carolina mountains.

I still watch and worry and pray, and soon our family will trek out to assist with disaster clean up (as is our way), but it's incumbent on all of us to make the world better -- to find those who are suffering, to lift where we can, to BRING HOPE in place of devastation.

My prayers continue with those who have no electricity, no running water, who are scrambling for food and safety. At the same time, my heart is light knowing good people in the world are responding to the desperation. Lets be those good people, eh?

How is your heart holding up? How have you found peace despite the upheaval in the world? What are you doing to find/bring happiness each day?

The Heart of the Matter

It's been a crazy month for me, how about you?

While reading Christine Rains' The 13th Floor series this week, something really struck me. Every member of the human family has a story deep inside--whether it's theirs, or something fictitious they're dreaming up with elements of reality.

So what sets amazing stories apart from the crowd? 

It's heart.

That's one thing Christine has done especially well. She really pulled the reader into the heart of the character's desires and fears. (You rock, Christine!)

Okay, for non writers, how does that apply?

What sets a person apart from the crowd?

It's heart. It's a willingness to share who we are from our very gooey centers.

As I was answering interview questions for my upcoming blog tour, I realized that 95% of what we allow other people to see about ourselves is fluff. It's the safe exterior shell. It's a socially acceptable persona. We build those facades to keep from getting hurt based on past experiences. It can be scary to expose those precious parts of yourself, and it really takes focused effort to peel back that shell and write from your core.
 
But have you ever met someone who was willing to open their whole heart up to you right from the get go?

I have. I work with them every week, teaching three of them school, and guiding a beautiful organization that facilitates lessons and activities for more than 70 of them. Is there anything so honest or amazing as a child?


What about you, are you willing to share with people what's in your heart?