Community thanks to all of those who reached out asking if others were safe.
We are safe here in the northeast and still pumping the rising water beneath our home this morning. In thirty years we have had just two basement floodings. And now have had two in the last thirty days.
I bought a small manual sump pump ten years ago after our first flood, and we stayed up all night a month ago keeping the rising water from flooding our basement. But I wanted something more powerful and automatic for what I know in my gut is coming. Our hurricane prediction session indicated this would be a game changing hurricane season.
My husband kept saying we would not need it. He was basing his prediction on the past. He is the smartest man I know. But I just knew the extreme floods were coming and I finally got him to agree to the bigger pump just for my peace of mind. We have waited six weeks for the basement contractors to come and install it and they arrived and started installing the the pump Wednesday as it began raining and forecasters were predicting record flooding for Wednesday night.
The heavy rains started early evening and went all night. My husband was up every other hour checking for flooding while I slept like a brick. It did not flood during the night because it usually takes many hours of rain before the ground water begins to rise to the floor.
The crew returned Thursday and finished installing the pump just as the ground water rose to floor level. It is still pumping what must be hundreds of gallons as I type this. The flood was never life threatening and I never thought it would be. But our home is safe and dry.
I always think of Julius Caesar’s wife Calpurnia begging her husband not to go to the senate that day because she feared he would be murdered. But his crafty friend convinced him not to listen to a woman’s intuition. And so Caesar went and was murdered. (That’s from the Shakespeare version of Julius Caesar. I don’t think anyone knows if she was involved ).
The pump install was surreal timing and makes me feel protected by angels and this amazing community. It also pays to be assertive when you just “know.”
I would like to extend continued protection to all our community members living in vulnerable areas— be it flooding or fires. May you all be safe and at peace!
I'm glad to hear so many are ok after the storm. There is something to be said for the peace of mind in knowing. Tho following such knowing can be hair raising in itself. Novella ensues:
Monica's funeral (the first of the crash) was on a Wednesday. We had funerals we attended every day following that. To be precise-2 or 3 daily. On Saturday after going to the morning funeral, the funeral staff notified us that Monica's ashes were now at the funeral home, as were some personal effects. Those items started a chain reaction that lead to my activism. The mistakes made were traumatic to say the least. In trying to regroup myself before the mid day funeral, I chose to read sympathy mail, only to come across hate mail.
The short version of this long tale is that there were right wing militias back then too. They hated that Monica's media coverage gave exposure to equal rights, the environment, and other progressive viewpoints. I spent hours that day at the police station while they investigated both the letter & what needed to be done to keep me safe. Even the postmaster was dragged into the mix to see the odds of someone being able to find my house should my rural delivery address become known. I was asked to stay home, stop going to funerals, keep a low profile (my face had been shown all over the globe at the funeral), vary my hopefully limited visits/ routes to & from the grocery store or bank. I was trained on how to check packages & my car for bombs.
In the decades since, I've only disclosed this a few times -just recently. I only checked my car for bombs once, as my 5 year old didn't stay behind the cart corral where I placed him for safety. Instead as I was on my knees checking the undercarriage as instructed, his tiny voice asked me from inside the car what I was doing. It was less than 3 weeks from losing my daughter in an explosion. I told him I had dropped my keys so I didn't scare him. The whole drive home I kept feeling the push to stop checking the car as it would psychologically harm my little one. I could feel that the militia were cowards who wouldn't be able to touch me. I prayed every time I didn't check the car & turned the key. In spite of the request to keep a low profile, I could feel Monica pushing me to do what was right. Just weeks later I found myself in another malestrom of press as I testified in front of Congress for the first time. I even had to make my home address & phone number (unlisted) public on my written testimony.
Fast foreward 25 years. In an interview for this years anniversary, the head of the NTSB commented on the law I helped to get passed. I knew the law was intended to give aid & support to survivors of transportation accidents. That's why I heeded the nudges to testify & attend DC meetings, have my own agent assigned to remedy the issues I faced to help those in the future in similar circumstances. But this summer I came to find out that once the assistance program I fought to have created exsited, it cascaded through our government & eventually internationally. The program became much of the basis for disaster response for survivors. I was flabbergasted.
People thought I was nuts for putting myself on the line (think stress) in doing what I did, and they had no clue of the real scope of what I was dealing with. It took a quarter of a century for me to realize why I was being urged from beyond so strongly to do what I did.
My point here is to show that you may not know why you are being led to do something. You may not see the ultimate outcome for decades-if ever. Still, follow the guidance you are given. Sometimes, you'll even have to do it in spite of the most well intended advice others are urging. There's a reason we are guided as we are. I assume that when we fail to follow our guidance, we'll either face consequences we'd rather not (like flooded basements), or alternative methods to achieve the desired goal will be plotted by the heavens.
I also wrote this to show that in the wake of the Texas laws, current political strife, etc., that such behavoirs have exsisted for eons. They were hidden back at the time of the crash for the most part, but have become more obvious. The more they are exposed, the more the collective can deal with them & support each other. Don't dispair- as I found out the hard way, the heavens will lead those who are willing to listen in the right direction to overcome.
@cindy What a remarkable human you are. ❤️
I just put your post in the Hall of Fame.
Cindy, I don't believe I have words to describe how moved I feel at the importance of your post. You are still making impacts in others lives my dear friend. Your words and your actions speak volumes. They always do.
You haven't simply been a lighthouse in a storm. You are more like a bright comet with a long brilliant tail which can be seen for months as it journeys across our dark sky. You are the comet who refuses to be disregarded and commands to be heard and respected. You are the messenger light in the night sky.
@ghandigirl what a beautiful post. I enjoyed reading your thoughts so much that I read them twice. I love the idea of you baking though the storm, filling the home with those delicious aromas.
I agree. Cindy you are incredibly brave and truly inspiring. Much love to you.
Thank you Jeanne. I actually invented a new recipe as I substituted items I didn't have. Baking makes me feel my Grammy's presence. I have come late in life to it- I feel she is thrilled and with me in the kitchen :)
As I have mentioned on here before, my mother is 81 years old and finally retired last year. She loves to travel, but because of the situation, she hasn't been able to do so as much as she would like. She is also a regular consumer of anti-vax (and some conspiracy) propaganda. As a result, she is unvaccinated, is absolutely adamant that she will not get the vaccination. She only wears a mask because and when she is required to.
So here's the problem, and why I need prayers/light directed to her as much as you are able. She is going to a resort here in CA for a week with my sister (also vehemently anti-vax) and one of her friends from her job at the hospital. I'm not terribly concerned about that trip since she will still be in CA and subject to mandated masking in most places. But...
She has also planned a trip to Colorado for a week next month to see her step-son and his family. Their family is also unvaccinated and unlikely to get it, so I am concerned about that situation, and light and protective energy would be appreciated. However it's the third trip she has planned that really worries me.
She has planned a trip to San Antonio with my sister for a week in November, just before the Thanksgiving holiday. Given 1) the Covid situation in TX right now, 2) the fact that there is a TX ban on mask mandates, and 3) the simple fact that she will *not* be careful because she thinks she's invincible or something, I have begun to literally prepare myself mentally and emotionally for the distinct possibility that both she and my sister will contract Covid while there, and that I will have that situation and the possible ramifications of it to deal with.
There is no point in discussing it with her (believe me, I've tried!), and I can't prevent her from going, so I am honestly hoping that something occurs to either cancel that trip or make it otherwise infeasible for her to go. Failing that, I would very much appreciate ramping up all of the healing and protective energies that you can all muster to keep her safe in her journeys.
The more they are exposed, the more the collective can deal with them & support each other. Don't dispair- as I found out the hard way, the heavens will lead those who are willing to listen in the right direction to overcome.
I hope this final two sentences brought as much a sense of calm to everyone else as it brought to me. Thank you, Cindy, and I'm so sorry it took you going through such a tragedy and trial to become this peace-bringer.
I have come to some realizations lately that have helped me to experience a paradigm shift.
It began with a dream where I heard myself say,"I am confused." and it has ended up with me finding a way out of daily grief and unforgiveness towards myself and others. I felt like I was drowning for years.
I have rediscovered the joy of being alive, having running water, plenty of food, kitty companions, amazing friends, and a very supportive and loving partner through life's adventures.
I am learning to accept my mood disorders at least a bit more and also to lightly extend a loving hand towards my child.
I want to thank all of you here for being an uplifting network of support. You liked me even when I didn't like myself. You have taught me a lot over these last many years that I have been a forum member.
Now more than ever I realize how very fragile life is and that we must live it gently. I also know how strong we are, and how bright the light is, even with all the efforts of those who would have us blindly walking and stumbling in that moonless forest of Cindy's.
I am returning to my true nature, of being a gentle steward and helper. I am feeling much better. I am ready for the future, and hope to have many more years here on Earth. We are not promised tomorrow, but if I can live and stay brightened, I feel my life will have been more than I ever even dreamed or imagined for myself.
Gratitude feels so much better than despair and I am overwhelmingly grateful to not be flattened in the mud for more years than I can bare to admit. So on this Rosh Hashana , where all new things are possible, I rise.