Amidst all the busyness of day to day life, my mind keeps going north to Moorhead, Minnesota where my parents live and the flood rages.
Talking with my Mom and Dad and with my sister and reading the paper on line just drives home how important community is. Not the noun community, the verb community.
This is where life is lived with each other. This is where college and high school kids stop to help unload a stranger's pickup truck of sand bags at a stranger's house. This is where people go to church for support when their house is surrounded by flood waters and they don't know if it will still be there when they get back.
This is where a guy sits in his living room in shock at the rising waters while friends and neighbors battle on in the basement to save his home. This is where a guy works all day at this job and then goes and works half the night to help strangers defend their homes.
It's where young and old come together to do what seems to be impossible. It's where people drive four hours to help fill thirty pound sand bags in a stadium filled with sand and bags. It's where the colleges let out class and the students go to work helping the neighbors they haven't met in a city that may be their home for only a short time.
It's where the wife in a home threatened by rising water takes the time to feed the people that she doesn't know (and may never see again) that stopped to pile some more sand bags on the dike simply because the job needed doing.
Community is more than a place to live, it is a place where life is lived with each other. It is a place where when troubles come people band together and do their damnedest to solve the problem instead of sitting around and waiting for the government to do something. It's a place where leaders lead instead of wringing their hands.
Its where a sense of peace comes when all possible has been done and everything is in God's hands for good or bad.
Community is a place that I miss an awful lot at times like this...
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Living in this community makes me feel very blessesd and very proud and impressed with the people here. Oh, we have our petty issues when things are normal, but how incredible that when true need arises all of that pettiness is set aside and people come together. Our city leaders have worked tirelessly to protect our community. The college students have turned out in mass to fill and pile sandbags. Other people who want to do something but can't lift have been cooking and making sandwiches to feed anyone in need. Citizens have been heeding the warnings and staying off the roads so emergency vehicles can get where needed. It is an amaizing thing!! We are grateful to be part of such an amazing group of people. Your little sister in Moorhead.
ReplyDeleteWe are so impressed with our city leaders who have worked tirelessly to protect our community and to keep us informed. The college students turned out in mass to fill and pile sandbags. Others who could not lift made meals, and sandwiches, answered phones and did anything possible to help out. People in this town have heeded the advice of city leaders and have stayed off the roads to keep them clear for emergency vehicles to get where needed. It is really impressive. During normal times this community has its own struggle with petty issues. During this time of great need all the pettiness is set aside and we have really come together. We are so pleased to be a part of such a wonderful group of people! We are in for a long ride with all the snow we are getting now, and an expected second crest on the river in another week, but what a wonderful group of people to be working with as we go through this. Yes, community is a wonderful thing!!
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