A Painful Reminder

Reading a little bit today about the aftermath of Katrina and seeing pictures of helpless people, most now homeless, battling their way through chest-high waters, I was struck by how last week all these people were going about their daily lives, worrying about the daily trivial things and then today, a week later, some of them have lost loved ones, some of them have loved ones missing and so many of them have nothing left. Houses gone, cars gone, friends gone. In a moment's time, it seems, all of life can be changed. And what once seemed imminently important---appointments, schedules, to-do lists---now mean nothing in the face of total loss. It's all about perspective. We forget that we're just one breath from eternity. We forget that there is no guarantee of tomorrow, of next week, of another year. And yet sometimes we can bluster through life and not see any of the magic of it. We race from one task to the next, grumble about the state of things, fret about the bills, agonize about things that we either can't change this minute or we can't change at all. And we forget to LIVE. We forget to look around. We forget to be kind. We forget to be thankful. We lose our perspective and it takes a Katrina to make us remember. It was a harder knock on the door for those in the South than it was for us here on this side of the country; no question about that. But it gave us notice, even so.