An excerpt from Whitney Houston & the Georgia Mass Choir's Help is On the Way...
When you're down and in despair
Don't be uneasy because he'll be there
Don't you worry, no don't you fret
The Lord has never, never failed you yet
So hold on, help is on the wayOne of my oldest and dearest friends sent me an email. Her name is Katrina. And I laughed when I got it. Not because she doesn't write or call often, but because it was pouring rain outside. Hurricane Katrina's remnants were washing Selah's hopscotch chalk off the front walk, pulling baby turtles through the grass and allowing the rainwater to get a little too high for comfort outside my front door. When my satellite couldn't find a signal, CNN, ABC, Fox kept tuning out my favorite shows for more coverage of what I was already experiencing. Sometimes...we need an escape. And yesterday, I really wanted to watch Oprah. I really wanted to write more than 1000 words on my novel, work on this conversion scene contest submission. But I was praying.
For real.
My grandmother, who lives in Swamp(Lake Park,) Georgia called telling me that my cousins wanted her to come with them until the storms died down. These cousins live in double-wide trailers. Grandma's house is made of bricks and built on bricks( a swamp creek outlines the backyard.) A doublewide is built on something less tornado repellant than that. I don't think so. I told her. But I had to tell her again, to stay inside. She wasn't scared, but lonely. And that made me very sad. You don't want to think of your grandmothers as lonely.
I wasn't lonely, but scared. If she didn't smoke, I'd bring her back up here. But the house is filled with four generations of women as is. And tonight I had to lay down a few house rules with my teenaged sister, who thinks she doesn't have to do what I say, since our mom is here. Oh. No. So I told her to hit the bricks. And all Katrina broke lose. Now I wished I would have drove home to keep Grandma Minnie company. We share the same rules.
Why am I telling you this?
Well...sometimes my life is a little more dramatic than the stories I create. Today is one of them. When you wake up to see someone mourning for his wife, a governor in tears, an eight-month-old boy with debris scratches scarring his face, people wading through muddy water, it takes the escapist out of me.
But invites the praise song in. Today the song has been
Whitney Houston with the Georgia Mass Choir's
Hold on Help is on the Way. Shoot. I might watch the
Preacher's Wife tonight. For those of you in the storm, out of the storm, facing a storm, let this song rock you to sleep tonight. Let's pray for those lost and the love one's who are lost without them.
Writing to see what the end's gon' be,
Dee
Please note: This photo is courtesy ofAP Photo/Gary Coronado.
Marshall Martin, on roof, passes 3-month-old Christoper Collins to New Orleans Fire and Rescue officer Jonathan Pajeaud while the child's grandmother, Sheila Martin, waits on a water craft during evacuations in the 7th Ward of New Orleans.
Michelle Malkin has a great site that houses information on assisting the Hurricane Relief and Survivor Efforts. http://michellemalkin.com/archives/003423.htm
The American Red Cross has launched the largest mobilization effort in history. Here in Atlanta we have two Hurricane Katrina refugee shelters, and a team of churches volunteering assisting them with food, clean clothes and toiletries, and preparing to go to Louisiana and Mississippi to help the American Red Cross bring the living to safe, dry shelter. Click on the link to donate as little as $5 to the project or if you're in Atlanta shop at your neighborhood Publix and donate at the Careforce Centers or the checkout counter. 
