I’m not going to lie: It’s been a weird week. Last Thursday night, shaking from shock and sadness, I wrote words. On Friday, Husband returned from his business trip and I hugged him hard. Saturday, we hosted Middle Girl’s birthday party. The weather was crisp and lovely and little kids frolicked in Halloween costumes; so much happiness, so much joy. Sunday was Sunday; gymnastics, couch cuddles, dinner around the big table. Yesterday and today. A sinister storm. We’ve had no choice but to hole up at home, to go from hour to hour, room to room, in our pajamas. There have been cartoons and art projects and brownies. There has been laughter and bed-bouncing and deep family time. Mother Nature has stepped in and whispered words: Realize what you have. Hunker down and hold it close.
And we’ve listened.
And so. Here I am. In this week. In this weather. In this life.
And I will do my best to revere the good and the bad, the sunshine and the storms, because all of it, all of this, means something, and matters. Through it all, I will continue to listen to the winds of this world howl with wisdom, to love my creatures, and to carry that umbrella.
♣
Have you felt the effects of Sandy where you are? Have you personally experienced any major weather events in your life? Do you ever feel like the universe is sending you messages to slow way down and focus on what matters?
Oh yes, absolutely. Yesterday was an interior day, a close day, with some bickering but mostly gratitude to be together. I’m so glad to hear that you are okay, and even still have power! I have thought a lot about New York having taken a couple of huge emotional hits this week. I’m sorry, because I know how much you adore your city, how entwined you are. Sending love. xoxo
Yes, yes and yes. I am still reeling from your post Thursday night. It just hit so close to home. On Sandy, I grew up in Toms River, NJ. It is heartbreaking to see the damage to the places I love. My Dad is still there without power and conserving his cell phone so reports are infrequent. Despite that, yesterday in Boston was a cozy, pajama-clad day as well where I held my girls extra tight.
On the note of being thankful fro what you have, I actually saw something this morning and thought of your blog, especially given your Thursday night post. I was walking home from the gym this morning at 6:30am in the rain. There was a young mother walking her baby in a stroller. The stroller wasn’t a bugaboo, city mini or any other souped up version with lots of protection from the rain, but the child was clearly dressed warm and cozy and the mother was singing, in an effort to make a rainy early morning walk more enjoyable. They stopped at a nearby aparment, my guess is to drop the baby off with a sitter so the mother could get to work. It just struck me how all of us mothers are just doing what we can to do the best for our children. For some of us, it means an early morning walk in the rain so we can make it to a 12 hour shift at a job that enables us to feed our babies. For others like us who have more choices, the decision may seem harder to understand, but we are all of us, doing what we think is best for our children. My heart breaks for that family.
I just wanted to come here and give a bit more detail about our experience with the storm… The bottom line is that we are so so lucky to be tucked away on a side street on the Upper West Side. There were points last night where we heard the wind howling and the trees on our street were certainly bending, but that’s about it. We never lost power. Big Girl and I just looked outside and my little weather girl was quick to comment on the wet leaves everywhere. I’ll take it.
But there are parts of this city I love – and I’m sure you’ve seen these parts on the news – that were hit very hard. A construction crane partially collapsed on 57th and we can see it from our top floor… It’s actually a blurry bit in the image above…And everyone South of 39th lost power and much of lower Manhattan is under water. They had to evacuate NYU hospital – and that is a very scary thing. There is talk of the city’s subway and electrical systems being corroded by all of the salt water…
Anyway, our city is reeling and I feel it because this is my city, but our little family is safe and I am beyond grateful for this. Another day home from school to do our thing; I’m not complaining. I hope that all of you are okay where you are.
xoxo,
ADR
Watching from London and I had to call by cousin in the early hours of the morning to check on her and family. Her word to be me were “It’s bad, but we are ok”. So happy to hear those words and happy that your family are ok. It is so sad about the loss of lives and damage around NYC and other places. Keep well and safe together.
I’m glad to see you writing in this space and to know you’re ok. I definitely think big weather events give us pause, time to think and time to be thankful for all we have (and equally concerned about what we might lose).
I’ve lived through a few major weather events in my lifetime. Where I grew up in St. Louis, we had tornados on an annual basis. Usually, it was just a warning and news reports of where tornados hit. One year, a tornado swept through my neighborhood, just a couple houses away from our own. It was incrediblely eye opening to see that kind of damage.
As an almost-adult, my extended family had gathered at my parents’ house on Cape Cod. Hurricane Bob barreled down and we waited it out at their house. Thankfully, their house is miles from either the ocean or the bay and protected from the water by hills and woods, but the wind was unbelievable. My parents experienced downed trees and limited damage to their house. We were house-bound without electricity for days – I remember it best as an adventure.
Living in Chicago, we have had our fair share of blizzards. There have been a few that chased us inside and left us stranded for days, but we’ve always been pretty lucky in terms of being prepared, not losing power and being able to rely on public transportation for Sweets to get to work (he has one of those jobs in the medical field that does not shut down when natural disaster strikes).
We’re actually supposed to fly to NYC on Thursday (along with 7 friends) – we planned a girls trip to New York months ago – who knew we’d have to worry about a hurricane?! Now we’re thinking that we shouldn’t come… we are all so sad as we were so looking forward to spending the weekend in your awesome city! Part of me thinks we should just risk it and come anyway!
Glad to hear you’re all ok!
“”Realize what you have. Hunker down and hold it close.” I love this. Glad you and yours are ok. We, too, feel so lucky to be tucked away on an UWS street, but my heart is just aching, looking at the pictures of lower Manhattan.
I am glad to hear that you and your family are ok! This is some crazy stuff going on on the East Coast… I’ve been glued to the TV for the last 36 hours!
I am glad to hear you are okay. I love what you said about listening to Mother Nature’s words. I have been glued to the coverage and really cannot believe it. I can’t imagine what all of it is/was like in person. I think it’s amazing how social media and the internet brings so many people together during instances like this.