Zookeeper's Wife

I know I'm basically a year behind, but I'm a mom and I use that excuse widely. 

If you're looking for an emotionally, eye opening, heart wrenching, thought provoking movie look absolutely no further. The zookeepers wife proves to be all of the above and more. 

It has always been hard for me to imagine the Nazi era, but I have been working hard to educate myself over the last years to better understand the histories of people around me. I still struggle to wrap my mind around the ingrained hatred that worked to motivate Word War II, and honestly I don't want to understand it. But, I do want to understand what led to it so that I can be best educated in how to prevent this level of hatred again.

I recently read Small Little Things by Jodi Picoult, and it too opened my eyes to experiences of racism for PoC. While I may be "woke" to the reality of these things existing, I am privileged in the sense that it isn't my daily life. 

I can't help but take a step back and reflect. How am I actively working against hatred? How am I pursuing a society of equity? How will I continue to respond as the hatred seems to be more vocal, more blatant, and more celebrated than ever before in my short life? These are questions that are quite literally keeping me up tonight. This movie. Oh my heart. This REALITY of so many- these babies being loaded in a train to be killed because of their looks and their beliefs. And a family who risked their marriage, safety, lives, and children to help others. 300+ people were saved because of their sacrifice. What will I sacrifice? What do I sacrifice? How could it be more? 

Tornadoes

What a crazy winter we have had...and a crazy spring we are getting ready for. 

A couple weeks ago, the south was hit horribly by tornadoes.  You probably heard about a mother, on the news, who lost one leg and her other foot from protecting her children in her basement.  What's crazy is that that woman is the daughter of one of our houseboat neighbors.  Not only do we "know"her that way, but she also grew up with some of our Kentucky family in Frankfurt (as in the same neighborhood).


Today, Michigan was hit with some crazy, hellacious storms.  Dexter, MI which is about 20 minutes away was struck with tornadoes that completely leveled homes in a neighborhood where I have babysat before.  Other homes caught fire from lightning, other homes had siding stripped from them.  It was a disastrous site, and it reminds us of how powerful weather can be, and how quickly a beautiful day can become disastrous.

#185: Safety
#186: The ability to pray for safety, healing, comfort.
#187: First responders and their bravery
#188: Sacrifice.  Few stories rival the story of sacrifice that this mother paid for the safety of her babies.
#189: UM is now #1 for SW in the country
#190: The end of the semester is so close.  Thank God.

Hurricane Irene

Since I've been sick all weekend and have done little more than lay around for the past 72+ hours, I have watched loads of broadcasts focusing on Hurricane Irene.  I am watching some at the moment, actually, and they're showing the crazy amounts of flooding and devastation that has hit New England hard.

Something that has been bugging me is that I keep reading things on facebook about how over-hyped the storm was.  First of all, why would you EVER complain about a storm being not as strong as originally feared? Second, was it really over-hyped?

5 million + people are without power
37 people CONFIRMED dead (more are missing)
Every major road in VT is damaged
New England flooding is worse than it ever has been

I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound pleasant to me.  So yeah, it could have been worse...things can ALWAYS be worse.  But why don't we celebrate the evacuation plans that helped keep that death toll to what it is currently instead of whining about it being over kill?

Disasters

Ever feel overwhelmed by the destruction going on in the world?  That is how I felt after reading the news today.

Just a month after the huge Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan, they were hit with another earthquake and are currently under a Tsunami warning.  Pray, friends. 

In Brazil, there was a school shooting and 11 people are dead, more could be injured.

The Nuclear crisis in Japan is no where near under control.

The Non-War-War in Libya is a disaster.  Women have been brutally assaulted and taken from their families and people are dying.  While I agree the Ghadfi should be gone, why are we killing people to do that?  It's a mess.

The world is crazy, friends.  Pray.  Pray that people would be safe; feel safe.  Pray that people find peace, happiness.  Pray that they feel comforted, and that they would know they are cared for, loved, despite the agony they experience in this world. 

If you haven't yet...

I know there are lots of videos of the Tsunami out there.  I encourage you to take some time to watch them.  Not for a long period of time.  But just so you are aware of what these people are going through. 

Some friends of mine have yet to be in contact with there family.  Likely from down telephone lines and towers, but with death tolls reaching 10,000 it is hard not to worry. 

As I watched the news this morning (listening to three little boys play in the room next to me) I began to think of how lucky I truly am, how lucky our country is.  Though the people affected by flooding in the East and South right now might not see that, or the kid living on the streets strung out on drugs; we truly are the land of opportunity. 

What are you going to do with your chance?  Your luck? You opportunity?  I'm gonna do lotsss