Hurricane Helene

It has been over a month since the hurricane came through and transformed our way of life.

It has been a month of indescribable loss, as well as a month of love and community that is equally indescribable. It has taken me every moment of every day to assimilate and integrate the experience into words, which, since we didn't have the internet for a month, has been good timing. 

Now, I have so much to say about what I have experienced and witnessed. So much to share and integrate into what I have learned about resilience, love, transformation, and grief.  And I know it will unravel itself over time and be spread out over many emails and lived experiences. 

For now, I want to thank all of you who have reached out to see how my family and I are doing. I will never find the words to adequately explain how much that care and tether have meant to me. When we, as a town, were on our knees in surrender to the pain and loss, the love, support, and prayers from the outside world were the hands that lifted us. 

Thank you from the depth of my heart and soul. 

In the direct moments, days, and weeks after the hurricane, continuously facing destruction, the amount of loss of life, the invitation has been about bearing the unbearable. I have cried every day since September 28th. Sometimes, from feeling the pain of the people who were taken by the waters and for those bearing that loss, sometimes from the kindness of a stranger asking, how can we help you?

The love and support poured into our mountain town, and our hearts is as powerful as the river's force.  I am changed by the enormous generosity of heart that has been everywhere. 

We all are. 

This time has shown me that there is immense love and generosity here when the end of the world I know is occurring. That humanity rises. We rise even as we are falling to our knees in pain and grief.

We rise and offer what we have, even if it means we have less afterward. There is a palpable love that has opened the heart of this area. 

I did not plan to send this first update message on election day here in the US, but dang, if I don't appreciate its divine synchronicity. 

Because the us/them, me/you walls of separation dropped as the waters rose.  The prevalent divide of these times, that gap closed from love. No one asked who one was voting for; they offered their time and energy and support instead.  

The unconscious fear of the unknown, of what will happen in an apocalyptic time ( not if but when), was resolved deep in my bones. What happens when there is no water, no food, or no way to communicate? What happens when there is so much destruction, death, and loss all around? What happens is care. What happens is generosity. Otherness becomes Oneness. 

Love prevails.

XX

Caroline

*If you’d like to hear more about my experience first hand, I created a personal update for you on YouTube. You may watch it here.