Dear Reader:

It is 2:45 Sunday afternoon as I start this blog. We woke up to temps in the sixties. It is overcast and still calm. A few gusts of wind pick up now and then to scatter the pine straw around…but basically we are still enjoying the ‘calm before the storm‘

Predictions for our Lowcountry South Carolina area have continued to improve this morning with the latest forecast predicting that we might not get the high winds with the rain as earlier forecasted…the main concern seems to be flooding. In the lowcountry it doesn’t take much rain to cause problems which then start a domino effect.

Look who is missing off the white bench on the front porch? You know I couldn’t leave “Big Red,” my faithful 9-year-old geranium, outside. Just the thought of a crazy gust of wind getting to it or the rain slanting and coming in on the porch is too hard to even contemplate.

“Big Red” has been by my side since my first cancer surgery-a gift from an anonymous benefactor. It is my health o’meter and has guided me well over the past (almost) decade.

So I got Luke, my young neighbor across the street, to help me carry “Big Red” into the B&B side and place it on the dining room table. I think you can see from the spread size of “Big Red’ these days why I needed help.

One good thing about having to move “Big Red” and the rest of the paraphernalia off the front porch is that I got to clean, really clean, the white bench that holds “Big Red.” It had been re-painted two summers ago during my house renovations…but already it needed it again…I chloroxed it and then spray-painted over the stains. So when “Big Red” returns to its throne it will be shining brightly.

One of my weapons for fighting “little c” is to conjure up how the ‘enemy‘ looks in my imagination. Then before taking any medication or treatment I picture my ‘army’ striking smack dab in the center of my adversary’s stronghold and breaking it down little by little.

This is, also, the only way I can wrap my mind around Hurricane Irma because it is just so  massive. My trick is to humanize it in my imagination. If I don’t do this my mind conjures up something abstract… dark and forbidding like a childhood bogeyman.

So I visualize Hurricane Irma as the bossy, broad-sided old aunt that nobody wants to ask for dinner…but who somehow manages to invite herself anyway… quite rudely without permission.

This cartoonist thought along the same idea; but instead of dinner, simply sending it in another direction with false road signs.

I think everyone in the path of Hurricane Irma feels this way…any direction but mine. It is only when we pull back from our immediate fears and concerns…do we get a better understanding…of the feelings of everyone along Irma’s path. Everyone’s prayers for their family’s safety…

Wouldn’t it be wonderful…if all America could link arms and blow as hard as they could…like the Big Bad Wolf…and ‘huff and puff’ Hurricane Irma back out to sea where no one and no property is harmed or destroyed.

We can’t but we can ask God to be with everyone in the hurricane’s path…to sustain them and supply them with the faith they will need to keep on keeping on.

This morning I went and closed all the windows on the B&B side while opening them all on my side to the cool pleasant breezes. I have the window by my computer open right now as I type…and I had to stop a few minutes ago and get a sweat shirt to put on to finish the blog. Surprised by joy!

So until tomorrow…I am praying that even in the midst of certain disaster for those directly in the path of Hurricane Irma…people will find a light, a moment to laugh, a new longing for life, and be surprised by joy.

* I thought this pictures was too cute. A Floridian couple’s  new little puppy ran after a Beware of Dog sign that blew over from a neighbor’s house. He is doing his part to protect his beloved owners’ home too. I feel sure Irma will heed his warning!

So until tomorrow…For many… Hurricane Irma will remind us just how precious life is and just how ambiguous  our stay in it is. There is no more time to set our dreams aside…we must act on them today.

Last stanza from “A Morning Offering” by John O’Donohue

May I have the courage today

To live the life that I would love,

To postpone my dream no longer

But do at what I came here for

And waste my heart on fear no more.

……………………………

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh

“If He can calm the stormy sea…He can calm the storm inside of me.”

Let us not forget this is the anniversary of the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Centers in 2001…even Hurricane Irma shouldn’t keep us from remembering the brave men and women who died on this fateful day.

A new memorial has just recently gone up honor the first responders, men and women, who have died since the initial attack due to illness and problems associated with the toxic fumes from the explosions. Several thousand people, involved in helping others September 11, 2001, have quietly passed away, largely forgotten until this memorial…erected just in time for this year’s 9/11 remembrance.

A Long Island beach where people gathered and watched in horror as the distant World Trade Center towers collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001 is the site of the latest memorial to victims of the terror attacks and among a growing number that honor people who died of illnesses years after participating in the rescue and recovery effort.*The cross is made of twisted steel from the World Trade Center.

Sleep my child and peace attend thee, all through the night.