Double Dose of Sad...

Woke up this morning clearly remembering that it was six months ago today that Laurie and I last said "I love you" to each other. Just that thought hung on my heart and in my mind until I remembered again the agony in the gulf area. A double dose of sad today.

Laurie's death is still bewildering. I had a bad drive home Wednesday night after a great hookie day spent with a bunch of fun women at Arlington Race Track and then out to dinner with them. I thought at dinner we seemed like the ladies in Steel Magnolia, so many different personalities and then it caught me: I was Sally Fields, the character whose beloved daughter dies. For the first time in a while, I did not just cry, I sobbed, I screamed, literally screamed. I slammed my hand on the dashboard. Then I took a deep breath, dried my eyes and spent the rest of the drive home listening to many healing songs, and recognizing, again, how much I adored that girl.

And today, to honor her, Pete and I sent off a pretty hefty contribution to the Salvation Army for the Hurricane Katrina victims. I had remembered how sad Laurie had been about the tsunami last December, worried about the loss of so many innocent lives. I am drawn to the news programs covering the horrific aftermath of this hurricane. There must be more we can do than just send money. I have an idea and I check with Pete and he gives the okay. We are going to list on www.craigslist.com and see if we can get maybe a single mom and child who need a place to stay and get started again. I had never even heard of www.craigslist.com until last Friday and now I have a way to be of practical help using this amazing website. When I checked out the site, thousands of others have offered their homes all over the US. I am praying that there is a way for some agency to coordinate these offers with the people who need somewhere to go.

We get a daily spiritual email from a friend called "Great Day Addendum" and today's reading was about being a neighbor using Luke 10: 36-37. We are instructed do be a neighbor. Not sit back and do nothing, be a neighbor. I have hope for those in so much need. The sadness is ebbing.