Season of Giving

So its been a while but i have had a lot of things on my mind lately.   The plans are underway for the next trip to New Orleans through the New Orleans Ministry at the Church of the Presentation.  I am now a member of the Core team which is very exciting, challenging and rewarding.  While I am the youngest member and one of the few females, I am very blessed to help with the planning.   With the plans underway and the thought of not being able to go due a full time job (the real world really sucks sometimes) and no money to do it. I think I am going to sit this one out and save my money for my spring break trip to Florida.  

Anyways, as the holidays rapidly approach and the threat of a struggling economy makes the headlines daily, I have been doing a lot of thinking about what types of things I am going to be doing for christmas.  I would really like to make most of my presents and have already started as the ideas come.  I have one complete. I had decided also that making something, might include making a donation.  Most people love it when you don't buy them a item to show your love but instead show you love by giving something to someone who has less then you.  I have sat in meetings the past couple of weeks with representatives of food banks who talk about their struggles.  The fact that so many times before the money didn't come in at the holidays, but this is the first year in their history where they don't have the food or the financial needs.   I have sat in meetings with organizations that talk about the devastation that is still so wide spread in Texas and yet no one talks about it.  This breaks my heart.  Daily I think about how little money I am making in my job and yet everyday I still have a house to go home to and there is food on the table.  Yet, these people have no jobs, no homes and very little food.  So I have decided to divide my means, even though it feels like so little, and I will donate to organizations that I hold dear to my heart.  Where I know, that the money will get to the people who need it most.  I am thinking that my two target organizations will be Heart with Hands  and Habitat for Humanity.  My other idea was to buy thanksgiving dinners for people who live near me.  I have to give it some more thought and maybe I could do all three. We will see.

I think that you should consider doing this, this holiday season.  It will be here before we know it and while most of us have so much there are so many who have nothing.  

Are you ready?

As the peak of hurricane season arrives on Sept 10th and we have three storms in the gulf, National Preparedness Month kicks off.  Whether you are on the florida coast right in the line of the storm, or in the Northeast where we will get soaked, are you prepared for any type of disaster?  Want to learn how you can be prepared? Ask me! Its my job!

Gustav

There is something so powerful about mother nature.  For two years I have worked to restore a city that was so devastated and yet in a matter of hours mother nature can come in once again and reverse the hard work.   If you really think about it deeply, we are absolutely powerless when it comes to the acts of mother nature.  I may now be in the field of disaster management but I feel hopeless.  I can't possibly imagine how my friends in St. Bernard's parish feel.  Many of them have probably once again left their homes with no idea what they will return too.  They hear the news media state that this is not nearly like Katrina, but it was 12 to 18 hours after the landfall of Katrina that we saw the worst destruction.  While there have been so many improvements to the levees and the cities operations, the only way to see if they are successful is to wait till the days following the landfall to see if the measures were successful.  I think that everyone is holding onto hope that we never will see anything like Katrina again, and yet for the past day or so it looked like Gustav could be a repeat.  The evacuation procedures may be different and more people may have left the city, but what if the people come back to a city with so little damage that they don't heed the warnings next time a hurricane heads for them.  I think that the next day or so are going to be very telling and that we really need to tune it to see what is going to happen.  Keep an eye on Hanna and Ike, there might be a need to help rebuild the carolinas or georgia.  

Some words to ponder...

Teach this triple truth to all: A generous heart, kind speech, and a life of service and compassion are the things which renew humanity.

-buddha

You know you are a NY tourist if...

you wear a tour badge

you travel in large groups

you only have 10 minutes to eat and you ravenously eat McDonalds in front of my building

your group takes up the doorway of three businesses in a narrow walkway

you don't cross the street when there is no cars coming and a don't walk sign

you poke new yorkers with your umbrella when it really isnt raining

you carry a large map and passport holder on your chest

you look lost

you stare at people on the subway and pretend you know where you going but then decide to ask someone (we know who you are...even if you try and blend in)

You carry gear for all sorts of weather

you wear socks with sandals

while we all have been in the tourist position..the NY tourists just crack me up. I will have an oncoming You know you area  NY tourist if section as i find funny tourists

The Unthinkable

I finished the book last night that I mentioned in one of my last entries.  The Unthinkable.  It was amazing.  Talk about getting the thoughts going.  When I ride on the bus into the city, I am constantly thinking about the hazards around me and if something were to happen how would I react.  The book looked at how people react in disasters and why.  It kind of made me feel like everyone should go through some sort of disaster simulation to know how they will react.  But, then I started to think about no matter how hard you can't absolutely be prepared for anything.  While so many people focus on the recovery part of a disaster after the initial impact, everyone overlooks the preparedness part.  Can we really be 100% prepared?  After a disaster occurs most people don't want to anticipate the next one.  This is something I have been thinking about as I have offered to do outreach in St. Bernard's Parish regarding disaster preparedness.  I just completed a 200 slide curriculum which how to be prepared in a disaster and I am wondering if the people like those in St. Bernard's would even be receptive to it.  Most of them lost everything.  My Uncle Bruce and Aunt Gini dealt with devastating flooding at their house on the Delaware and yet they did everything in their power to be prepared for the next flood event.  The man on CNN talking about shrink wrapping his house...that was my Uncle Bruce.  At the dinner table last night he was talking about how after the news discovered what he had done, FEMA had contacted him about the idea.  Little did they know that it was an example in their flood avoidance guide book.  Shows you how much they know their projects.  Being the personality type of a 2, I am always wanting to fix things.  This gives me more motivation to get further into the field.  However, I feel like I have hit a huge road block.  I need experience to get a full time job. I have lots of experience but not in what people want of course.  I feel like people are overlooking some important elements when they hire.  I hate that you have to put your personality on a piece of paper.  I am sucky at describing myself.  And to get hired on that?!  I am grateful for Lisa, who saw my abilities and how essential I was.  Now I just need to make a little money for what I am doing.  Although I now have some really cool stuff on my resume.  While employers aren't going to care that I got sent to Brooklyn by myself on the subway, they are going to care that I have attended conferences, worked on developing this exercise that we will be carrying out on July 12th and I am managing volunteers!!   Anyways, I have rambled but these are some of my recent thoughts as I impatiently await what the Lord has in store for me in the coming months.  While I really have no control over it or way to be 100 % prepared, I can take the steps to participate, not anticipate (as the Boston BFF used to say).  Pray for patience for Megan!!

polka dots

So yesterday morning the first thing that I saw when I came out of Port Authority was a polka dot concrete truck.  There was multiple.  How awesome is that.   

The last thing I saw before I went into Port Authority was the shooting of a movie.  There were gunshots and you should have seen how peoples heads turned.  It was crazy. And then these three cops came cruising around the corner.