i have tons of papers to do before tomorrow so i can't write for long but it was really important for me to write a little bit about this past weekend. as i'm sure some of you have heard, nashville is and the surrounding areas got hit with record-breaking amounts of rain this weekend (over 13 inches) and so many areas are flooded and destroyed. my house was okay and everyone i know is safe, thankfully. the bar that i hang out at, though, had almost 6 feet of water in their basement. the thing about this bar is that it's not just a bar. it's like a home to so many great people in this city. they have a motto that "if you're human, you'll fit right in" and i can truly say that they mean it. anyway, i heard through the grapevine that they needed buckets b/c some of the girls that hang out there a lot were trying to get the water out with buckets. i stopped by, picked up a few buckets, and headed over.
when i got there i found about 20 soaking wet girls in an assembly line throwing out about 3 gallons of water every 5-10 seconds. pretty damn effective  . so i gave them my buckets, rolled up my jeans, and got right in there with them. you wouldn't think it'd be fun bailing water out from a basement, but it was the best experience i've had in a long time. everyone really pulled through and came together... because it's really like family over there. they are the best people in the world and it was such an amazing experience to be a part of. i feel so lucky. and i realized that these are the things in life that matter.. relationships matter.. family (even if it's not blood-related) matters.. community matters..
flood waters can tear apart our city but they can't tear apart our community.
what a beautiful thing.
---
on a side note, this is something i wrote while i was stuck that morning because the flood waters were too high to drive anywhere:
May (I please stop this chaos)
Nashville,
the whole town under water
Rain,
encasing the cities
the roads
our minds
Me,
stuck wantingneedingwanting to help.
I, I can do nothing. I can offer nothing.
~
I want to take this water into my bloodstream,
absorb the H20 into my cells, my bones...
to save this beautiful city from disaster
even if it drowns my lungs.
I want to disintegrate into the storm drains, the sewers,
dilute my very Being until it is so sparse that I do not really exist
but yet I am ((everywhere)). I don't want to go ((anywhere)).
Please, dear, don't let me go ((anywhere)).
~
The rain always washes away:
my chalked secrets
the dirt on my skin
the roads from the city
like a violent but gentle purging
a fucked up attempt to be pure
a horrible lashing out from the very earth beneath our feet
the very sky above our heads
It's beauty & chaos & horror
mixed together like my cream & sugar & coffee
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