Broken Hearts

Yet another 100 year flood

It happened again. This time it was the Guadalupe River that overspilled its banks.

You can read about it here:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/live-blog/texas-floods-live-updates-rcna217030

I love the river and the lakes around Austin. It is one of the reasons we moved here. I am fortunate I live on a hill and have not taken on water yet…

We swing from drought to flooding pretty regularly but this time was particularly hard. I have two grandkids that are the same age as the kids killed in the flood and one of them just returned from camp last week. As the saying goes “but for the grace of God…” I am hurt and confused by how this can happen so quickly and frequently. Hold your loved ones tight and appreciate every moment you have with them.

100 year flood

They call it a freak of nature

100 year flood

One not to be repeated

Until it does

Over and over, we see

The Groundhog Day of our new reality

At first it felt kind and loving

Blessed moisture falling

Caressing each dry forgotten blade

Bringing life

Bringing hope

But it didn’t stop

The ground once starved

Now bloated

Engorged

Nowhere for the fortune to flow

Building beyond banks pushing out

Into civil worlds

Not made for this onslaught

Rising, rising

Pushing trees to topple

Pushing roads to give way

Pushing children from their beds

Into the roaring collective

Motorhomes juggernaughted into trees

Trees of untold ages no longer standing sentinel

What chance did they have against that roaring tide

What chance did our children have

It came in the witching hour they were unaware and innocent

Crashing, tumbling, fragmenting plunging

Below the rolling waves

Below the sightline of better angels

Snagged under the debris of mother nature’s rath

Missing little bodies that may never be found

Our eyes well and flood for the loss

Graduations, marriages, decades of love and life

Washed away

All from what now appears calm and beautiful

It will happen again