There aren’t a lot of times in life when we have a chance to start over. Divorce. Death of a spouse. Or the devastating hardship of losing a home to a disaster like fire, tornado or hurricane. Such is the case for tens of thousands of Houstonians.
Texans living in and near Houston show courage in facing a brutally gargantuan storm but also in dealing with the aftermath and the necessary prompt clean up. Those of us across the state, living nowhere near Houston, pray and contribute in any way we can. But we all collectively share heavy hearts. Imagine the total loss. Perhaps many who lost everything in the hurricane can cut their losses and find another place to live and work, create a whole other life somewhere else … if they want.
Even Texas Governor Abbott speculated Houston cannot rebuild as it has time and again from past hurricanes. In modern memory, Harvey is the Father of all Hurricanes. Amidst the flood and fury, tornadoes touched down, too. The ordeal was epic and, of course for many a Texan, biblical—that lingering thought in the back of the mind that God poured out His wrath for some reason. No, we must try to remain rational about what happened. Houston, like New Orleans, was built at sea level and is prone to flooding. The wonderful warm Gulf Coast waters are susceptible to hurricanes every season. It’s a way of life tens of millions along the Gulf Coast and Atlantic coastlines enjoy while others find such a life of occasionally boarding homes and leaving town to escape a possible hurricane foolish. Yet for many, the smell of the ocean, the sound of the waves, the dewy humidity and mild temperature calls and beckons. It is intoxicating, so give them all a break.
Houston’s population swelled up to two million people, twice the size of Dallas, in recent decades. Houston is the center of state-of-the-art cancer research with probably the largest medical employment anywhere and with at least one of the nation’s top universities. Unlike Dallas which was never supposed to be a major economic center in Texas, Houston was always our state’s main business artery, being a seaport. It was located perfectly for international trade and commerce. There are the highly intelligent who work at NASA, and then there’s Houston’s oil and gas industry with lots of good-paying jobs and/or lots of jobs. Whatever the reason for living in Houston, there were even more for loving it.
Love and loss
President Trump and the First Lady were practically on the spot once the area was declared hurricane free. They saw for themselves the devastation, no doubt smelled it, too. And the President was prompt about opening the nation’s wallet to help the needy and destitute survivors of Hurricane Harvey, even generously contributing $1 million of his own money. Houston will stand again, a bright light along the Gulf Coast. A couple of days later, The First Couple returned to southeast Texas to help out. Their sincerity and efforts were appreciated and appropriate.
Even a National Day of Prayer was set by the President to help heal spiritual wounds from such loss of property, business, jobs, food, money, even plans for the future. Healing spiritually over such physical loss is very hard. Any of us could put ourselves in the place of others who’ve lost everything. But as is said about such situations, until it happens, we don’t really know how people are impacted emotionally. As a reporter, I used to talk with families at the time of a loss from a fire or tornado and return a year or so later to find how things were going for them. What I discovered was not only could those survivors chuckle and laugh about what had happened, even about how sorry they felt for themselves at the time, they all said the same thing, along the line of “I got better now than I had before.” They were referring to new or renovated homes, TVs, furniture and clothes. But they could have subconsciously meant their emotional and spiritual lives were somehow improved having survived the loss of everything.
Life has a way of healing our wounds, if we let it, if we really want to heal. But healing does start from the soul, from the spirit—for it is the human spirit that endures every hardship. Expressions like “Let go and let God” become a source of strength—because at times of total loss, we are not in control. We are left to float by ourselves or so we assume. Only when we are hit hard with loss can we see our own resilience and find how tough we really are, how humans survive anything often with restored humor. God made us this way, installing a safety valve so to speak. Houstonians know this better than the rest of us who do not spend our lives along the coast. They see hard rain falling, palm trees blowing close to destruction. Yet after the storm, they experience the calm, the rejuvenation, the eternal optimism and overwhelming joy from just being alive.