Katrina: Five Years Later - Out Came the Sun

A year ago (HERE), I made myself promise that I would let go of the anger and resentment I still carried in my heart for the events that caused and that followed Katrina.  I vowed to see things through rose colored glasses and find peace in that while what happened was tragic, there has been so much good to come from this disaster.  


And while I know that finding that peace and seeing the light that has come out of this darkness is healthy, I cannot but feel incredible guilt in doing so.  I know that my family and Mark and I have so much to look forward to.  We have so much to be grateful for.  But there are times when I feel that moving on and fully closing the hole Katrina left in my heart indicates that everyone affected by the storm is also whole again.  And I'm just not sure that's true.


 Perhaps the incredible loss we all shared, many more than others, would be even more tragic if we as a people and a community didn't find peace.  That the true tragedy would have been to allow Katrina to swallow us whole.  To take our pride, our culture, our way of life from us.


And that we have not done.  We have stood together and rejoiced in the spirit of New Orleans.  It is a resilient spirit.  One that saved us from the storm.  One that made the new New Orleans a vibrant and thriving community.  


It's amazing how sometimes you find a lesson in the simplest of things.  Like a nursery rhyme.  That even though the rain may wash you away, the sun will rise, and so will you.


The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout.

  

Down came the rain, and washed the spider out.

 

 

  

 

 

Out came the sun, and dried up all the rain,

 

 

 

and the itsy bitsy spider went up the spout again.