‘What does love look like? It has the hands to help others. It has the feet to hasten to the poor and needy. It has eyes to see misery and want. It has the ears to hear the sighs and sorrows of men …… That is what love looks like.’ - St. Augustine

Tuesday, October 04, 2011

When It Rains, It Pours

Literally!


I woke at 5:45am to the sound of our flood alarm going off in the basement. The water was already up to my knees. I went to the side door of my basement that faces the driveway, and the water was pouring in the cracks of the door like a waterfall. I sloshed over and looked out the window...it was up to my chest outside the door. Nothing I could do. The water was getting so high inside that even all my pallets holding bins of stored items started to float up and away. My furnace flooded, my washer and driver tipped sideways, my beautiful collection of antique children's books was under water. (Nastia had moved the basket downstairs when Natasha moved in for awhile. She never told me.) I waded around looking at all my boxes and bins either submerged under water or floating by me, and I just said over and over again to myself ' It's just stuff, it's just stuff. Let it go. Don't cry. It's just stuff.'

So far so good - no tears. Not much I can do until the water drains out. All the major storm drains were clogged with leaves, so Nastia, my neighbors and I were out at 6am with brooms and sticks and anything else we could find to moves the leaves. My arms were too short..the water was that deep!

Anyway, I'm always trying my best to look at the bright side of things, because there always is a bright side. I've come to the conclusion that this is the motivation I needed to do even deeper purging of material things. Why do I have a basement full of things? It's too much. So, once I get everything dried off and washed (if its not ruined!) I'm going to start getting that stuff on craiglist and ebay. Gorgeous costumes, bikes, a brand new stroller, bins and bins of yardsale items. I'm just going to look at this as a strong reminder of my commitment to purge. If you can think of other positives to a flooded basement, please pass them on in the comment section!

PS: I filmed my basement, but it was too dark, so all you see on the video is a black square and hear me sloshing and mumbling 'It's just stuff, it's just stuff...'

2 comments:

  1. We had the first downpour of the season last night too, and I found the mini-van flooded today! I was pretty bummed about that, although the only thing of value ruined was our big paper CA atlas (about $30). After reading your post, I have my "loss" in perspective. So so sorry (esp, about the vintage children's books, which I also collect--waaahhhh!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am so sorry for you. That's awful. I am becoming less and less attached to things, but antiques - that's where I'm still hooked.

    ReplyDelete

What do you have to say? Leave a comment!