My day, so far, is laundry, boiling water, fixing meals, and listening to the wind. Our area of Texas is just a few days past a hundred year record breaking amount of snow, ice, as well as water, heat, and food deprivation.

My husband and I are incredibly lucky. No burst pipes or destruction in our house. We lost heat and electricity for a day. Just a day. Again, we were lucky.

Today we got the all clear to stop boiling water, and the okay to begin washing over a week’s worth of dirty laundry. There’s a certain Zen flavor to washing clothing, but I despise folding and putting away the cleaned things. It’s as if my brain’s done once the stuff comes out of the dryer. Luckily my husband picks up the slack and sees it through.

Between loads I sit facing the big windows of my den, relishing the fresh air blowing in, the sound it makes bouncing down the hill outside. An old faded watering can hanging on a shepherd’s crook is free of the one foot plus icicle it wore last week. It swings and gently bounces in the wind.

I pray for my friends and neighbors who lost loved ones last week to cold or Covid-19. I pray for those grieving for the 500,000 dead from this Pandemic. So much loss. So much grief. May God comfort them, and may our leaders guide us out of the wilderness.