Linking with Imaginary Gardens for the weekend mini challenge "Boats"
imagined by Kim
"We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear."
~Martin Luther King, Jr.
A wise poet once said, "The only way out is through",
and when it comes to flooding that can be very true.
Sometimes you turn around and leave the way you came
and others it surrounds you and there is no quick escape.
You can start to wade through it or try to walk against the tide
but when it comes to flooding your better off with a boat ride.
So as you hold your two allotted bags and leave the home you knew
remember with most recoveries the only way out is through.
The view of our apartment before we were rescued out by boat.
(Keep in mind this is on stilts already. That is how high the water was already!)
It seems that the only time I get in a boat is to escape flooding. I went through this a year and a half ago and again recently with "Harvey". You do not realize how powerful water can be until you see it rush through an area and take up the land like a raging giant. I have grown to have a very respectful fear of water. Frankly sometimes I feel like moving to Arizona, but all my family is here and here is where I will stay, just not on the lower floor of these apartments. So many people in this area are trying to completely start over their lives with new homes or gutting out and rebuilding the ones they are in. So much loss and so much to do to renovate and move on. It is much like true recovery, where one much face the problems at hand, dig through the rubble, endure the cleanup, and carry it through to completion. Like so many solutions in life, truly the only way out is through.
Carrie, I am so sorry you are going through this. The message in your poem is correct, the only way out is through. I hope you were able to salvage all that means something to you. I admire the courage in your poem, and your resilience.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry about your situation and admire your hope.
ReplyDeleteMay each day bring blessings.
indeed courage... a most beautiful poem in light of surging waters....
ReplyDeleteHow devastating to lose your home - water is indeed a tremendous force, hope rebuilding will go well.
ReplyDeleteHurricanes and floods are devastating and I'm so sorry that you have had to go through such a terrible experience of danger and loss more than once. I can understand your 'respectful fear of water' and agree that "The only way out is through".
ReplyDeleteI do sympathise! Where l live in Australia, earlier this year we had the worst floods in 100 years. I was not personally affected, being on a high hill, but some of my friends were and many people suffered huge losses and much fear, also there was some loss of life. Months later, the town is still recovering. I wish you all the best in the aftermath.
ReplyDeleteYou pen a thoughtful piece here Carrie. I lived for a number of years in a Yorkshire town which regularly flooded.People would be just recovering when it would happen all over again.We lived on the hill outside town for that very reason. I don't think I could handle it.
ReplyDeleteCarrie, u feel for you. I wrote of a similar experience a few weeks before Harvey. It was Claudette in July 1979 that sent33 inches of water into our home. We left through a high window and waded to high ground several blocks . It was dark, I had our daughter in one arm and a bag in the other. Mrs Jim had the dog in her arms, we lcoked the cat in the garage
ReplyDeleteWirh food and water. That was Friendswood, Texas. Sorry, no boat. We did knock on a door and the people let us in. But before morbing they and we all had to leave their home. We moved and did ot flood again. Yet. We live in Katy now, several friends did flood.
Flooding is a far worse intrusion than the wind of the hurricane -- we got a passing glance of it here in Central Florida -- wild enough for me -- but we were high and dry afterward. With flooding, one always hopes there is just enough sandbags, and if not, then to ride the disaster through. The long view is that crises only look that way heading into them -- always things are discovered getting through -- but that isn't much consolation. We have had three major hurricanes this season, the violence of each credited in part to warmer waters: Florida will probably significant migration from Puerto Rico, and that will become a political crisis. My wife and eye look elsewhere out of the state, but where? And leave home? Like you say, the only way out is through.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry...prayers. We just went through Irma. I hope things are back to normal soon.
ReplyDeletethis touches my heart - and I do love the quote from MLK
ReplyDeleteThank you everyone for your kindness and well wished for recovery. It sounds like several of us have been impacted by hurricanes and such. I wish us all a speedy recovery, and am blessed to know you all in this wonderful platform of writers.
ReplyDeleteMay you always stay safe..our family house was flooded too, its terrible. the fear anxiety the loss the misery...for three years our city area was flooded, luckily the first floor saved us...you write so well, effective realism' Thank you for visiting Pakistan
ReplyDeleteHope you recover from your ordeal soon.The idea of leaving with two bags is a sobering thought Best of luck with everything. Arizona sounds good.
ReplyDelete