We celebrated Katrina’s 6th anniversary trapped in a Manhattan hotel listening to hurricane Irene whip and whistle down the ally outside our window. We are spending Katrina’s 7th anniversary watching on television as Isaac pours out all he’s got on the city we love.
I woke up this morning reminded of a few words I scribbled down in the moments between the passing of the storm and the breaching of the levees seven years ago. My wife had drifted off to sleep on the couch next to me as we watched weather reports through the night from the safety of her parent’s home in East Tennessee. I wrote, “I’ll wake her up when the wind stops howling. I’ll wake her up when the static fades. I’ll wake her up but we can’t stop dreaming. We’re redeeming the days.” A few years later, songwriter Ben Shive and producer Monroe Jones helped me bring the song to life on the album Redeeming the Days available HERE.
We’ve watched for seven years now as those days of tragedy are being redeemed in us. Slowly the gold is being freed from the dross. It’s amazing that seven years later I can still feel the anxiety of that season creeping up the back of my neck but I can. It’s still here, reminding me to hold on to what matters and keep a looser grip on the things that do not.