I’m slowly starting to get into a routine with the same work and job everyday, but the people I run into seem to be the one thing that changes the pace. I’ve been making deliveries of our new prints and so each day, I meet new people. Today, I was able to actually make deliveries to people’s homes instead of businesses. That usually poses a little bit of a challenge with the average person at work from 9-5 and is usually marked by a few hours of phone tag. Finally, I was able to catch up with Martha and deliver her artwork.
I pulled into Martha’s neighborhood around the time we agreed to but Martha was a little behind me. When she made it home, I was quickly greeted with the run down of her day and invited in. I wasn’t sure if this was the average welcoming that most delivery guys get, but she seemed nice enough. So I just followed her in and kept an eye on the door just in case. Martha finally got around to the point in her day when she was about to leave the office to meet me when I was able to feel comfortable enough to pay attention. And just like every conversation for the past two weeks, we got around to the tornado.
This storm has drawn a line straight through the heart of our city and it’s nearly impossible to be unaffected by it. Even if we live several miles away from the storm and work in the same area, it’s impossible to not drive a few miles without seeing the destruction. Martha was feeling the effects of the storm as well despite living and working no where near the disaster area. As she was about to leave the office, one of her coworkers found a mother cat and a few kittens that had obviously been displaced from the storm. One of the cats had an old beat up collar that had at one time probably held the tag of its owner, but not any longer. This was Martha’s chance to help out a little.
Many full time workers that were unaffected by the storm have gone back to life as normal. Well as normal as life can get I guess. Despite getting back to a full time work load, it’s impossible to really get back to full focus because one lunch break can snap you back to reality. Unfortunately for people like Martha, there’s not much she can do and still earn an income. So she’s faced with the dilemma many of us are faced with – how can you keep working when our town is still facing this? How do you accept the blessing that your house and workplace are seemingly unaffected when your neighbors are looking at rubble? That’s the question we’re all trying to figure out the answer to.
I could tell as Martha told me the story of the kittens that she felt like she was doing something of value. I’ll be honest. I’m nothing even close to a cat person, but we all need our little victories nowadays. So I let her tell me her story and told her there for no need to apologize for that reason of being late. This is a long term project and we need every shot of perseverance we can get. These little stories and little victories are what is going to keep the stories coming in the months that await us. We just all need to keep doing our part and playing our role and remembering that we are a part of a whole. It’s not my job to rebuild this city, but I’ll keep cutting up trees until they’re no longer horizontal. We just need to keep playing our role.
