It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succour of those years wherein we are set, uprooting evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule. -- J.R. R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

I just spent a week in New Orleans with friends trying to help a few people cope with the tragedy of life on this unpredictable planet. I am still processing the whole experience. There are so many needs, so many people whose lives have been devastated. There is still so much confusion about what the future holds for most of them. I tore through walls of mold infested sheetrock wanting  to find someone to blame but only discovered how little I care for those outside my walled, mold free world.

It is amazing how I protect myself until tragedy strikes and then all that stuff that seemed so important ends up in someone else’s hands or in a trash heap. Home is redefined in terms of relationships. They take a long time to build and there is even more time necessary to rebuild on a regular basis.