Today starts Cycle TWO of this diet .. no no, training regimen I'm endeavoring to complete. Seventeen new days with some new food integrations. So far, so good with the first cycle. I've shed 12 lbs so far, which I'm not necessarily celebrating, because I'm fairly certain over half of that was excess water weight (lovely). No worries, though. I'm bound and determined to stick with this.
Today also starts something a little more epic for me. I found out at the end of the week that the house in which Joe & I used to live, along with the rest of our neighborhood (Toney, AL), was flattened. That house had no basement, and I am fairly certain that our neighbors along that road also had neither basement nor storm cellar of any sort. I'm praying they reached safe shelter before the storms took their homes.
So, let me give you the quickest possible synopsis of how this far-fetched vision hatched:
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| tuscaloosa, al |
At some point in the middle of a deep REM cycle last night, I found myself sitting in my living room watching the newsfeeds: image after image of debris-speckled housing developments, overturned cars, and people frozen in hopeless gaze at piled rubbish they once had called a safe place. An almost tangible sense of panic and empathy sprinted up my spine and I couldn't handle it any longer. I picked up my phone, called the owner of Penske rental trucks (amazing whose numbers dream phones have, pre-progammed, ha). I told him I wanted a 26-foot truck to transport some daily necessities to Huntsville, AL. He said yes. I, along with a small army of my 'best friends' (people who, in real life, I've never met) picked up this truck. We loaded it with donated items at a pick-up spot in Cincinnati, then hit the open road to Louisville. We repeated mass pick-ups, accompanied by small speeches of gratitude in Louisville, KY, Bowling Green, KY and Nashville, TN. In Nashville, we'd somehow coordinated an appearance by a band resembling Casting Crowns (though not actually them), and their set was performed on top of the truck. The funds raised and the ministry set forth were overwhelming. We added the last of the donated goods to the truck and filled nearly every last inch with the hope that hundreds of people had funneled into four cities. We dropped everything off with volunteer mobile units at my old church (Wall Highway Baptist) in Huntsville, and, after watching the miracle of ministry outreach, headed back to Ohio.
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| tuscaloosa, al | neighborhoods |
Welp, sounds even nuttier that I'm attempting to bring the majority of this wacked-out dream to real-life fluition, but hey, I'm not really a conventional person, and as a believer in the healing potential with which God endows each of us, it'd be a waste to at least not try.
Declare my lunacy. I'm cool with that. :)
Sooooo.. when Monday hits, I'll be on the phone and engrossed in emails to see if and where this could materialize. If I can't jumpstart this effort, I will, if nothing else, join forces with a mobile volunteer unit that's already onsite aiding cleanup, recovery, and response efforts.
Please pray for the direction of this project.
I have no idea if and where this will lead, but I am confident that the God I serve already knows, and He'll have me on the right path if I just trust Him.
So yeah. How's that for a Saturday?
xo.
.: c :.
