Reflections on Katrina

This past weekend, the nation took time to remember a particularly dark chapter in our recent history: Hurricane Katrina.

The news coverage, generally, focused on the ongoing recovery that is underway not only in New Orleans, but all along the Gulf Coast – a Gulf Coast that also was hit hard, both ecologically and economically, by this year’s oil spill.

In the Houston Chronicle’s Sunday coverage of the five-year anniversary of the day the levees broke in New Orleans, one sentence stood out to me:

“There also was a curious breed of newcomer, people who saw the catastrophe on TV and came not to capitalize on misfortune and to make a buck, but with a sense of mission.”

In the aftermath of Katrina, thousands of people left their own homes and familiar lives behind, and settled into life in a new, often unfamiliar place, where basic resources were sometimes hard to come by and the work that needed to be done was – and continues to be, in some cases – beyond overwhelming.

Sometimes, stories and images grip our very core, forcing us to step out of our comfort zones and to take action.

Maybe it means we do something as dramatic as quit our jobs and relocate to an area because we know we simply cannot ignore a gaping need.

In other cases, we choose to make a financial sacrifice and donate to an organization that we know is meeting an urgent need or solving a problem. Other times, we devote ourselves to a cause for a week, a weekend, or a few hours a week or month over the long-term.

How we choose to reach out varies, depending on circumstances including where we are in our own life and how we are able and equipped to give.

But the important thing – and the thing that gives so many hope in the midst of overwhelming tragedy – is that we are capable of continuing to be touched and changed by those stories and images.

Thank you for stopping by. If this is your first visit to our blog, please read this to find out a little bit more about who we are and what we do. If you find the conversations on this blog relevant to your life and the work that you do, please subscribe to our feed, follow us on Facebook, and/or join in the conversation via the comments section.