Hurricaine Harvey, am I right?
I’m a little late this week because, well, Harvey. And a trip to Dallas that was originally planned to leave on Sunday, backed up and left a day early because of…Harvey.
We made it there, we made it back. Everyone is safe and sound and I’ve never been so happy to be home, or so nervous on the drive here.
In any case, here are a couple pictures from the neighborhood.
What I didn’t get were pictures of the lines of trucks towing boats and flatbeds full of water and other supplies that we passed on the way home.
Just, THANK YOU. To everyone who put on a rain parka and went into harm’s way to help strangers get to safety.
Watching all those trucks go by, originating from Dallas for sure (About a 4 hour drive away) but also from farther away just makes me want to smuck that cynical side of me that takes over sometimes.
To all my friends and loved ones, thank you for thinking of us, yes we’re safe, no, we haven’t flooded yet and yes they are evacuating parts of my county due to planned releasing of water at certain points. Luckily our subdivision is not near any lakes so we’re still in the clear.
For now everything is cancelled, school and work. No one is going anywhere now unless we have to.
We’ve got lots of supplies – all the essentials. Tomato soup, food for Benji, water, milk, bread and, of course, wine. Only thing to do now is to hunker down and stay safe. After that, see how we can help those who aren’t faring so well.
If there’s one thing I’m learning about Texas, it’s that people help each other. Politics takes a back seat and human beings come first. It’s lovely to see, and terrible it takes a crisis to see it.
While I was getting some last minute supplies before we left (afore mentioned water, bread, soup etc) I had three people stop and help me. One to load the water onto cart, one that saw Ellie lost a shoe and hurried to get it for her, and one totally random stranger who saw me struggling to get both kids in the car, brought my cart around and unloaded my supplies for me.
From the simple kindnesses of strangers in the grocery store to the first aid responders and nurses who are working 4 day shifts (yep, four days) to ensure the community is safe, these Texans have both impressed and humbled me.
I couldn’t help but wonder, they’re so sweet, but how many of them had political (and social) views I would agree with? Probably none of them. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe with all the conflict going on now is NOT the time to talk politics, not to talk about those things that divide us at all. You can’t reason away deeply held beliefs no matter how wrong we think they are.
So maybe the thing to do, and we can do this right now wherever we are, is just to quietly, kindly, and whole heartedly treat everyone like they’re human beings worthy of our time and compassion.
Hardest thing to do is usually the right thing, yah?
Thanks again everyone, and stay safe.
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Angela Yeh - Fantasy Author. Dragon Enthusiast. Optimist. 