Katrina Remembered

Yesterday marked the eight year anniversary of the landfall of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

Sit with that for a minute.  

Eight years later and there are still people living displaced lives; modern American refugees in states and places that are not home.  There are also folks rebuilding, resettling, recommitting to the joy of this place.  This is the community I have been called to serve.    

While we didn't do anything to commemorate the event as a YAV house, which, quite frankly, I'm not sure how we would have done anyway, the date weighed on my heart, and I was pleased to notice this story on NPR , acknowledging the destructive anniversary and celebrating the work of Ronald Lewis, who I had the pleasure of reading about in Nine Lives: Mystery, Magic, Death, and Life in New Orleans.

Mr. Lewis' dedication to the preservation of Mardi Gras Indian culture in NOLA is inspiring, and his passion for the resuscitation and celebration of the Lower Ninth ward is contagious.  While it is easy to get flooded with grief from the images above and the memories they evoke, New Orleans is a city still living into the reality of surviving trauma, and rightfully honoring and glorifying that survival.  I take a lot of hope away from folks like Ronald Lewis. I'm hoping to meet the man and visit his House of Dance and Feathers soon.

Until then, the city breathes and weeps and sings, honoring the abundance that is having enough.