Resilient

So for today's blog, I tossed around a couple of ideas. Gender roles and Defining relationships. I'll be honest, talking about either of those is hard to do (for me) without getting too personal and I'm seriously not in the mood to disclose that much. Instead, let's just talk, shall we?

As you've read (I hope) in my last two posts, there's a lot of damage and carnage going on in the state of Oklahoma. I've heard, here and there, that Kansas, Missouri and Texas also had some severe weather. Apparently it wasn't as dire as ours is and hasn't made national headlines. 

If you haven't noticed, or if you don't know me, I can be quite sensitive. It's an attribute that I don't like to express, but one that is very hard for me to hide and I've spent the better part of six months trying to bring it down a few notches. Compared to this time last year, I'm about 75% as sensitive as I was before. And maybe I'm giving myself more credit than I deserve, but I'm taking it because I have made positive changes worth considering since the beginning of the year.

Sensitive or not, I am still emotional. I may have the brain of a dude, but I still have the hormones of a girl. I may not have been immediately affected by the twister, but I was changed - even minutely - by my trip to Moore to help. I'm a people-person. I love to see people face-to-face. I'll Skype or FaceTime with just about anyone (and someone Skype'd with me tonight and prompted my unpublished thoughts on "defining relationships") and I'll go out of my way to see someone who needs a hug or something. I just operate better on that level. I also internalize a lot. I probably should have stuck to financial and goods donation.

I think, to some degree, any decent human being wants to help in one way or another. People think that positive thoughts/energy and prayer isn't enough. If that's all you can offer, please, don't let up until you've given every ounce that you have to give. You'd be surprised what a smile can do for someone. A hug, even. Just because you can't physically help with debris removal doesn't mean you aren't helping. I took off a bite way too big for me to chew by trying to go out there and volunteer my man power. I don't regret it, I wouldn't change it. I wanted to, I needed to. Just because the news and people in the area told me it looked like a "war zone" doesn't mean I understood what they meant. I am a tangible thinker. I HAVE to see it, feel it, take it in for myself, to understand it. That's why math and I don't get along.

Please, if you are in another state or you are unable to lift wood and plaster and deal with the sight of baby clothes and toys and cars being strewn about like they don't even matter, keep everyone in your thoughts. Don't give up hope, because I can guarantee you that Oklahoma is not giving up hope. We are resilient. The one word people are associating with us Okies is resilient and they are absolutely right.