He Said
Hurricane Irene brought us a first-time, and hopefully one-time, experience. We witnessed a flash-flood and watched it come within inches of flooding the first floor of our house. In the twenty minutes that elapsed between 2:00am and 2:20am on Sunday 8/28 a river magically appeared in front of our house where Water Street used to be. We certainly have a deeper appreciation for the roots of that street name.
Thankfully, we were not affected too seriously by the flooding. Our basement was nearly full to the brim so we lost a bunch of items that probably needed to be moved on anyway, a few power tools, a night’s sleep and a long day to doing the bulk of the muddy cleanup work. Our yard and shed were flooded out a bit so again more items that we did not really need are out on the street for garbage pickup, a couple of Koi fish had an unplanned release into the wild and, worst of all, my motorcycle got muddy :) Our furnace / hot water burner was submersed so that required a fairly substantial repair bill, but that was about the worst of it.
As with any experience that we approach in the right way, the Water Street Flash-Flood of 2011 had some good lessons to teach us. So I am going to share a few little moments and messages that came through throughout the 48 hours or so of The Flood.
At around 2:15am, once Denise and I were both fully awake and fully cognizant of the fact that lots of water was rapidly accruing all around our house, and after a call to a friend who we look to for emergency information (sorry Paula and Marty), we started to figure out what to do next. Marty had advised us to stay put until emergency personnel said otherwise and start moving valuables upstairs. With aide of adrenaline that was rising along with the flood waters, Denise and I carried our electronic piano upstairs. I drew on years of relationship experience and offered no argument whatsoever about doing this. We quietly rushed around getting irreplaceable and electrical items to higher ground. Although we had already started to consider the possibility of evacuating, as had now been suggested by the fire company, we did not yet want to wake the kids up. We had enough presence of mind to realize that we still were a bit too panicked to present a calm and united front for Stephen. Being able to keep each other from going too deep into the panic pit and helping each other to focus on making the right choices for our family despite the frightening circumstances was a practical and powerful affirmation of our love.
Although it was a very difficult decision to make, we did decide to evacuate to higher ground at around 3am. Once we did this, we woke the kids up and in a matter of minutes everyone was in rain gear and wading through the stream to get our ride to a place to stay for the night. The lesson here was on making a tough decision based on what was most important to us, the safety of our family, and sticking with it. There were plenty of moments when we weren’t completely sure we had done the right thing, but we kept reassuring each other that we had.
Once the excitement had passed and we were back in our home, the lessons kept coming. Denise, I want to leave you some things to write about so I will just mention a couple. I stayed home from work on Monday so that we could tackle the fairly daunting task of cleaning up our basement, shed and yard. With the water gone, a half inch or so of fine silt/mud covered everything that had been flooded. What impressed me about the cleanup day was seeing how effectively and harmoniously our family worked together to get a Herculean task done very quickly. Nobody complained (I have to confess that Stephen went to a friend’s house for most of the day thereby removing the person who may well have complained a little bit :) and we all worked tirelessly and kept each other’s spirits up with gratitude and encouragement.
I will close with an allegorical lesson on the accumulation of stuff. There is something about the threat of losing a good portion of our belongings that made me take stock of what was really important to me. Seeing miscellaneous stuff in a soggy and muddy state strewn all over our yard, much of it memorabilia that was held on to “just because” gave me a graphic picture of the cost of clinging to stuff. Contrariwise, the lighter feeling of looking on a mostly empty, mostly cleansed basement was satisfying and freeing. I think that it is much the same with our minds and what we choose to focus our thought energy on. When life brings you an expected event that challenges you to think with agility, or rethink things, you really don’t want a basement full of baggage slowing you down. It can be the difference between sitting mired in a soggy, muddy mess, or spring-boarding from the experience into a better place.
She Said
Max , the ease with which we moved and supported each other struck me in each moment we had to make yet another choice. In a way we were living in the now , and despite the fear and worry there were moments of joy and happiness, and even laughter. The curses during clean-up we took with stride, not taking ourselves seriously, thinking this is annoying but everything is okay.
The memorabilia we found floating in the basement water, or stuck in the mud, also added little joys into the process of clean-up, giving me incentive with each find: photos of your great-grandfather, the pilot, I wiped down and let dry out, the miniature dollhouse bathroom sink made by the father – lost and surprisingly found - I was thrilled to discover, an expensive bottle of wine we were saving to try and sell for someone (it’s gone now – consumed! Instead of being called A Rothschild you called it Hurricane Wine), the word “light” on an angel card shining up at me from the dark, an unsinkable picture of Jesus - sending his message of love my way, and my favorite find– the decorative Norman Rockwell plate called “The Couple’s Commitment.” I smiled and took that as a sign that this event was one of those for ” better or for worse” times mentioned in wedding our vows. I hosed off the plate decorated with a picture of a well-dressed young couple sitting perusing a Sears-like catalog of old and right away went looking for you. A smile came over your unshaven face. You were also pleased with the message we were getting.
All during the process of clean-up we hugged often, made eye-contact reading each other’s thoughts, and realized we can’t take anything or anyone for granted. Each moment needs to be cherished as best we can. The flash flood was a time of growing up a little bit more for us, growing into a seasoned couple, and letting go of the old. We are more solid and a bit more grounded, despite the rushing water.
