I gotta get out of bed...

No, this post is not about laziness. In fact, quite the opposite. I am seeing a new side of myself emerge lately. I'm not sure why or how or where it came from but it's both good and frustrating. I feel myself more and more drawn to community service. I have always enjoyed volunteering at odd jobs here and there but lately my passion for service has gone way beyond the extracurricular activity level.

During the hurricane Katrina disaster, I am constantly thinking of what am I going to do? What am I going to do? How do I help this situation? In an ideal world, it would just be a part of life that with any nationwide disaster, all focus needs to be on helping the situation at hand and everything else (like work) needs to take a backseat. But this is not the case. Ultimately I think that's fine because our southern friends do not just need a bunch of random people hanging out waiting to be told what to do. They need trained workers, skilled in these types of situations.

But here's the thing. What I have been focusing on is not the people or the evacuation. Yes, that is a terrible, horrible situation and I have sympathy for everyone involved. But what I cannot stop thinking about is all the animals that may have been abandoned in those homes; all the strays; all the animal shelters that can't just evacuate 50 dogs and 300 cats on a greyhound bus. I just can't stop thinking about it. Once again, back to an ideal world, I would be able to head down there to help in any way I possibly could to keep the surviving animals okay. But I can't. What can I do? I can send money. That is NOTHING to sneeze at. I know from volunteering with non-profits that donations sometimes make a world of difference, regardless of size. But this will not lessen my need to DO something.

I am reminded of an Indigo Girls song in this situation:

"Clearing webs from a hovel
A blistered hand on the handle of a shovel
I've been digging too deep, I always do

I see my face on the surface
I look a lot like Narcissus
A dark abyss of an emptiness standing on the edge of a drowning blue

I look behind my ears for the green
Even my sweat smells clean
The glare off the white hurts my eyes

I gotta get out of bed and get a hammer and a nail
Learn how to use my hands
Not just my head I'll think myself into jail

Now I know a refuge never grows
from a chin in a hand and a thoughtful pose
You gotta tend the earth if you want a rose."

All I can focus on right now is what I can do locally and donate to those who are able to physically be in the areas that need it most. I'm contacting local animal rescue foundations, humane societies and animal shelters. Gotta start somewhere.