It's been 2 weeks since my last post.
The amount of things that have happened are mind boggling. When things get nuts I often have to stop and just get quiet. Quiet I have been...The first of the list happened about an hour after I wrote my last post. I was on a high from my family weekend when the first bad news hit the scene. I honestly had no plan of sharing it but I think I need to record it and another along with the natural disasters.
Paul Allen texted the family about an hour after I hit send on that post and said that a friend from his larger friend group was missing from a diving accident in the Gulf. My heart sank along with my family's. When you pull away the military from the Fort Walton Beach / Destin area what is left actually a small very close knit community. This was gut wrenching. He was 32 years old, the same age as Paul Allen and Katie; the same age as my dad when he died. For some time, the entire fishing charter fleet and anyone who had a boat that could go that far out was patrolling along with the Coast Guard looking for Jeremy. Our community was invested in prayer for finding him. Many thought he could survive because he was Air Force Special Ops. His family is just such an amazing family. These kinds of things are just so hard to understand. His mom is the most precious human I know...the director for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes for the Emerald Coast. Thankfully, he was found on the last day before it would have been too rough to go out due to the incoming Helene. It was not how our community wanted, but the reason I share this story....
Is the human spirit.
Let me explain...
Watching Helene hit an area that had already been hit hard last summer by a hurricane would have been enough for all of us. I could not stand watching the scenes from the Sag Harbor Marina in Steinhatchee, Florida. Helene was worse than the year before. Putting things up on the second floor wasn't enough because there was a record 20 feet storm surge. Who can imagine such a surge? One story of so many...
One scene was watching the water flow under all the houses on Cape San Blas where we spent the most glorious family vacation in July. But, they were on the west side like us so they fared well comparatively.
None of us in our wildest imaginations could have conceived the images that would be so hard to look at up the southeastern states. At some point, you have to stop looking because it is too much to see, but some people are in the middle of it and can't stop looking. Things such as this will grip you to your core.
In my quiet, I had to rely heavily on prayer, doing specific things to calm my soul which included long walks with Gus, sitting on the decks and listening to the water, going in my sewing room and looking out the window for birds to visit me on the fence, and going downstairs to listen to my old records on my brother-in-law's old stereo.
The world seems to be firewood with kerosene poured out all over and just waiting for the match. It is a lot to take in. I know for me...I have to turn it off and concentrate on the blessings right in front of me.
The memorial for Jeremy was yesterday and I know many would have expected old normal Sandy to have come home to watch college football, but I had zero interest. As if I have not shared enough, a student from my high school alma mater was hit on the first play of the game on 2 Fridays ago and had a broken neck. If there is a silver lining to this, the game was being played in Mobile rather than the very very small town of Brewton. The boy was able to receive excellent care at the top rated hospitals in the south. His spinal cord has not been severed, just injured so my little hometown has been heavily invested in praying for healing for this young man.
Football just wasn't on my mind yesterday.
What I did think about though was the hope of the human spirit. There is so much bad, but if we lean in to our Heavenly Father, He can help us shine a light to those that are hurting. It will be so many people who will do good deeds, so many churches that reach out to those that are so broken and hurting. While there is another hurricane on its way to the peninsula, I have faith that God will get us through it all. It will be a reminder to put our thoughts on Him rather than the chaos everywhere.
I keep coming back to Hebrews 4:16 which has become a favorite verse of mine...
"Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.
The therefore is from the verse before that we don't have a God that doesn't sympathize.
Let me turn this post to a more positive tone. The above is where not just myself has been, but my family as well. Most of our family's texts were on those thoughts as well.
However,
I have filled my two weeks with the usual: chores, grandsons, Hubby, Mama, reading, stitching, and sewing. It is good to keep our hands busy so to keep the mind from resting on the troubles.
My stitch has been a joyful reprieve from the news. I am still working on the Pensacola Lighthouse. It is coming along beautifully and a reminder to let His light in us to shine on those that are hurting.
I am really enjoying this stitch. I have not even minded the lots of one color stitching. It is going to look great with my Florida sampler and the other coastal things I have lined up to work on in the coming days.
I have been sewing on the Advent calendar for Paul Allen's little family.
I have the pockets made and all stitched together. Next up is to put some trim around the front, then back it and quilt it, then finish it with a binding.
I read a really good book. I didn't mention that several weeks ago we went to see the movie about Ronald Reagan. It was excellent. We had listened to the interviews from the actors beforehand and really enjoyed it. At the end of the movie, a book was show on screen that one of the secret service members had written. The gentleman had been with the Reagens longer than the normal run for a secret service member on the request of the Reagens. He was in charge of riding horses with President Reagan. It was a fantastic book. Riding with Reagan: From the White House to the Ranch by John R. Barletta. It was written in 2005 so if you are interested you might find it at your local library. All of it was written from Barletta's perspective of course. The first half followed the events in history, but the second half was more personal accounts of his time riding and being with the President.
What are Paul Allen and Miles looking at? A bald eagle. I decided he was flying too close so I put Gus inside. I think the eagle had certainly spied Gus. He has been hanging out in the bayou a good bit lately. Miles and I witnessed it eating a fish outside the kitchen window while sitting in the pine tree. I have to say that was even cooler than the osprey or the heron which we have seen doing the same.
Jeff and I are off to Pensacola in the morning for his second visit with the "mean" doctor. The movement disorder specialist has my ear now because the way she dosed his medicine has had a very positive effect. He did kind of make me sad this week when he said he would be going to North Carolina with a group going from our church. I understood and he would if he could. Hopefully he has much to offer yet.
Perseverance and prayer. Prayers for those who are awaiting Milton on the west coast of the peninsula of Florida.
Lots of praying,
Sandy
