Blessings from the storm

“Man never made any material as resilient as the human spirit.” ~Bern Williams

We’ve all heard the clichés about everything happening for a reason, or there’s a plan for you or it will all work out. While always said with the best intentions, they never do anything to calm the anxiety and worry associated with facing a disaster or otherwise troublesome time in your life. That was true two years ago as we waited to learn the fate of our island after Ike’s surge washed ashore.

At about this time two years ago, mom and I were trying to settle into a hotel in San Antonio with what seemed like hundreds of other refugees from Hurricane Ike’s path. We had no idea how long we’d need a hotel room, what had happened to our homes on the island and what we faced ahead. Those who know me know I have an innate ability to imagine the worst-case scenario for any given situation. And I’d run through all the worst-case scenarios while I waited for official word on the fate of my house. But honestly, no worst-case scenario I imagined prepared me for the days and weeks and year that followed that storm.

It tested my strength and my endurance more than any long-distance bike ride ever did. It tested my faith in myself and my neighbors more than anything had before. And it tested my ability to see beyond that moment, to see what might be, in a way that no other situation in life had.

Two years have passed since that storm, and finally, Ike doesn’t occupy so much of our conversations. I’ve been in my house a little more than a year and I’m finally feeling settled at home. Last year was all about getting past the previous 12 months—letting go of the anger and sadness, and letting go of the things I lost in the flood.

This year, I am finding peace in the many blessings brought to me because of that hurricane. I still do not buy into the notion that “everything happens for a reason.” Any reason you find is a reason we apply to make ourselves feel better about whatever is happening.

But I can say easily, there are changes in my life that would not have been if not for the storm, and for those changes, I am grateful. These are my blessings from the storm:

*My knitting gals. A group of women who were friends before the storm came to rely on each other after the hurricane. We gather almost weekly to laugh and sometimes cry together about the events in our lives. We support one another and have formed an unbreakable and tighter bond in the months following the storm. Had our lives not been interrupted by Ike, I’m not sure our relationship would have evolved the way it did and for that.

*Renewed sense of community. I worked on the Recovery Committee and have volunteered on projects in the community. I have witnessed a renewed sense of community in Galveston that reminds me why I love this island. We are a strong people, those who grew up and those like me who chose to call this sandbar home. Staying after the storm was a conscious choice for me and one I wouldn’t change if I had the chance. After Ike, I can without hesitation say I’m a Galvestonian.

*Closet space. Granted, I wouldn’t wish this kind of remodel on anyone, but from the storm I was able to add the bedroom closet and pantry my house so desperately needed. I don’t remember how I stored my dry goods in the kitchen before that wonderful pocket-door pantry Beau Rawlins helped design.

*Outside Kitty. She disappeared before I could get her to evacuate, and she took four months to show up after the storm. But like the rest of the island, she’s a survivor and she’s there to greet me most days.

*The things that survived. From art to small collectibles to the ring my father made for me, Ike managed to spare a handful of what was in my house. I no longer simply think my art looks pretty – it helps define my house as my home. I look around and am surrounded by art that matters to me and am grateful for the sense of place it gives me in the world.

My list can go on and on. Each day I am reminded of the changes brought forth from that event in my life and each day I am reminded I am as strong as I think I am.

Ike might have ravaged my house and my neighbors’ houses, but it didn’t ravage our spirit. We can all count the blessings in life a little better. As I learned when my father was sick, it can always be worse. And despite losing much of what I owned, I didn’t lose me, I didn’t lose those I loved and I still have the shell of a house to call home. And today, I am home and right where I need to be.