Motivation Monday — Or not so much

September 16, 2013 by Jen 5 Comments

I’m just going to start by admitting I came nowhere near reaching my goals this week.

But–

I live in Loveland, Colorado and we’ve kind of had a lot going on around here.

This sculpture garden is across the street from my oldest’s school. I took this picture yesterday. It’s also down the street from our old house (we moved last March), and less than a mile from our new home. Lilly and I used to walk here almost every day. The pond border is behind the polar bear. This park hosts the Loveland Sculpture Invitational every August.

I’ve been consumed with news reports. Glued to television coverage of some of my favorite places in the world reduced to piles of debris and gushing muddy water. My city was literally divided in two with no open roads from the north side of town to the south. The Big Thompson river transforming our streets into part of one giant raging river. Friday we were an “island” of sorts with the Big Thompson ferociously flowing a couple of miles south of my home, the Poudre river cutting off travel to the north, damaged roads and massive flooding penning us in to the east and to the west. It’s been horrific. Heartbreaking footage of thousands of homes destroyed. Many of us just feeling helpless. Wanting to help, but also having no idea where to begin and not wanting to “get in the way” of those who know what they’re doing.

I’ve lived in Loveland for most of my life. The devastation here is tremendous. The road ahead is a long one. We were hit hard, and our neighbors just to the south in Boulder were hit even harder. There are still hundreds of people “unaccounted for” in Larimer County (my county). My family spent most of the weekend waiting for news of my aunt and uncle who have been hosting a campground along the Poudre river all summer. They are fine, thank goodness, but still trapped up there.

And that is a good story. There are so many who have lost everything. Entire towns essentially wiped from the map. People still waiting to be rescued.

I don’t even know what else to say. Thank God it has finally stopped raining today.

Here is a link to an aerial tour (from Saturday) provided by the Denver Post:

http://photos.denverpost.com/2013/09/14/photos-colorado-flood-damage-aerial-views/

(The pictures of Loveland start at 28, they are all awful)

These pictures make my stomach hurt.

Please continue thinking of our once beautiful, thriving state.