Louisiana Flooding

If you haven't already seen these photos of the flooding that occurred after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, take a look:

New Orleans under water

As I clicked through the images, I was thinking, "Wow... Oh, that is terrible... My goodness..." And suddenly I thought of all those beautiful old historic homes that we learned about in my Historical Design class years ago and how they were probably destroyed and I would never get to see them in person. And then I felt horrible for thinking of those fancy homes when there were so many regular people in regular homes who lost everything! How could I think about myself and how I wouldn't get to visit the historic homes when there were so many lost lives and so much devastation?! (Of course, we can't control our stream of consciousness, but I still felt bad...) And then I hit the slide with the family sitting on top of their house, hoping to be rescued in time. Instantly, tears flooded my eyes. Those are REAL people who really sat on their roof, holding on to each other and waiting to be saved, knowing they would lose everything but each other. And each other is all that really mattered to them in those moments anyway. Puts things into perspective, eh?

Something I read yesterday, written by a FEMA worker in the midst of the devastation, concluded with: "Life is fragile, precious, and priceless."

Indeed it is. Hug your children a little tighter today, and remember to say "I love you."