I live in Northern Indiana. I am tucked into a small town with festivals and farmer's markets and fields for wandering. We have long winters and the occasional tornado which touches down....but my family is strewn from coast to coast. Their worries are different from mine as they live in Hurricane Country.
It seems as if our focus shifts from one geographic location to the next in concern for those I love and those whose paths I will never cross.

The younger portion of my brother and sisters live in Houston and Galveston along with my parents. The reports of them are good. Damage minimal. Spirits high.

My brother, Jack, is a hero to me. He and his wife, Denise, live in Galveston. He is with the Houston police force, married later than most of us. When not working, he plants roses and trees for his sweetheart.

His duties have called him 12 hours a day every day for the past month with the refugees from New Orleans and on duty in Galveston during Hurricane Rita.
His trees and flowers have survived the storm just like him. I want to tell him how proud I am of him and his unselfish giving.

Today is Sunday and I think of hurricane clean up....yet my small world continues to go on. Autumn has arrived and there is a small scattering of dry leaves on the streets as I walk. Philip arrived with Autumn. I love bringing him into my life...sharing my world. We have spent most of our time at our small town festival. Our town is transformed for one week end...streets are blocked off. There is music and apple dumplings and roasted chicken and almonds.
Friends gather on street corners as the vendors ask us to join their church or buy a raffle ticket or draw our portrait.

Last night we square danced at the park under the night sky. There were bonfires to light the area...a bluegrass band and a caller completed the picture.
We didn't stop dancing until the last waltz. Aaron and Karen and other friends joined us. Aaron and Karen have been entertaining guests from Shanghai, China and they brought them all along for the American Square dance. They said they had never experienced anything like it. Philip and I talked about the history of square dancing as we drove back through our darkened small town. He is the caller on his island and loved the Indiana dance as well...so many similarities he said.
What wonderful fun it must have been to attend corn huskings from long ago and find the red ear....that meant you could kiss your sweetheart. Life must have been sweet then...life still is sweet.

Today is more music and then we are hosting a pot luck supper tonight. He will be here another week...movies in our small town, a lecture on the Amish, a trip to Indy for a special storytelling event...quiet walks...wine on the porch in the evening. Yes, life is sweet.

Happy Birthday to my sister, Lee, in the mountains of Colorado. I remember the day she was born, but not the year...maybe that is a good thing.

I can't heal the world...recede the waters, stop the wars...but I can think of each one of you today and the tasks and joys in each of your lives, and that is a good thing.

So with a do-si-do and a grand right and left...bow to your corner, swing your partner and promenade all the way home......wherever that is.

Love, Lou Ann