Cathy Burnham Martin's Blog, page 34

Oh, Deer!

http://goodliving123.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/2024-10-20-08.17.02-first-year-fawns-w-Mom.mp4

Some mornings are more dear (deer) than others. LOL! Mom and her first-year twin fawns were romping beside our kitchen deck today. They play like puppies.

Do It at the Ballot Box!

“This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it.  Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.  Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people?  Is there any better or equal hope in the world?”

— Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)
American statesman
16th President: 1861-65; first Republican president; assassinated following Civil War

Calmly See All

Photo by Antonio Lopez

 

“The mind is like water. When it’s turbulent, it’s difficult to see. When it’s calm, everything becomes clear.”

— Presad Mahes
Canadian marketer

National Mulligan Day

Photo by Jellleke Vanooteghem

 

‘Tis beautiful to turn the page to a clean sheet of paper. Reset. Realign. Restart. Redo. Just breathe.

Caring Continues

“Without a sense of caring, there can be no sense of community.”

— Anthony J. D’Angelo(1955 – )
American author

Continued prayers for all in the U.S. Southeast. Florida suffered great losses from Milton. Several states, especially western North Carolina, continue efforts to recover from Helene’s devastation. For example, more than half of the city of Asheville, NC continues to struggle without power and workers endeavor mightily to tame crazed rivers and rebuild washed-out roads and collapsed highways.

Wowza Day!

A lot of cleanup continues and restoration begins in western NC. We have been blessed by neighbors and friends showing up to work on our great many fallen oak trees, all of which were taller than our house is long! But amidst all the challenges that Helene left in her wake, there are some Wowza moments. Case in point, the photo our neighbor snapped of this elk in our pasture. There are some 200 elk in North Carolina, but this gem was displaced by the storm and its flooding, as we are in the foothills. Elk tend to stay up in the mountains, particularly the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, west of Asheville. (We are southeast of Asheville.) So, Mill Spring in little Polk County got a Wowza moment!

Caution!

 

“The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.”

— Stephen King (1947 – )
American horror author

Progress

 

“Progress is not possible without change.”

— George Bernard Shaw (1856 – 1950)
Irish playwright & critic

Hope

 

“Hope is being able to see there is light despite the darkness.”

— Desmond Tutu (1931 – 2021)
South African Anglican bishop & theologian

Western North Carolina Strong

After Helene tried to drown out western NC in the wee hours of September 27, we are grateful to say, “The lights are back on, and we love having power and water again.”

 

 

Yesterday afternoon, as trucks started rolling into our pasture and along the road by our driveway, we cheered and applauded and expressed our thanks to the tireless workers from several states, who all responded with broad smiles.

 

 

 

They were unloading their gear and beginning repairs on yet another stretch of downed and tree-covered power lines.

 

 

 

 

NC Air National Guard has been amazing. Forestry, first responders, TIEC, and several local agencies, too. Choppers continue their flights, searching, rescuing, and recovering. We went from 400 to 650 roads and highways closed in the last days of September.

 

 

 

 

Entire towns washed away. The damage in the two towns abutting us to the north (Lake Lure and Chimney Rock) is beyond horrific.

 

 

 

We are very blessed. (FEMA was not ready for prime time in North Carolina… missed multiple basic steps like getting names and headcounts in stranded neighborhoods or contact info or addresses to which folks were going to evacuate. Communication 101 and some training are needed.)

 

In times like this, we learn the depths of generosity and kindness. Our confidence in the goodness of the human spirit is restored, as so many worked hard to help others, even when their homes remained without power and water.

Special thanks to friends David Weisgerber & Angie Vidibor for their pictures of Day 1 from Chimney Rock… and to Bill and Angie Leffort for letting us shower and gather water and then lending us their generator when their power returned so we could rev up the fridge and freezer, helping us to feed folks. And yes, now that Milton swept across Florida, Mom is safe, though without power and water.

Here’s my bottom line. In times of trouble and challenges, faith and the 5 C’s will get us through:
Calmness
Compassion
Competency
Cooperation
&
Creativity
My most humble and heartfelt thanks to everyone.