I Can't Save The World. But I Might Have Saved My Dead Mom Last Night

I was really depressed last night. Like on the verge of tears depressed.

Being out of work because of this broken foot has left me with far too much time on my hands to sit on social media and read all the negativity in the world right now.

Last night I was following the live stream footage of North Dakota law enforcement using water cannons on the unarmed water protectors of Standing Rock. It was below freezing and these peaceful activists protesting the Dakota Access pipeline were getting doused with water and tear gas.

As I was watching the live feed, one of my yoga friends was en route to Standing Rock to support the water protectors in any way she could. She wasn't sure what she could do to help, but she knew she had to do something.

Add to that the shit show of an election we just had, the vitriol being thrown around by both sides of politics, the uncertainty of the next four years, the news that four different police officers in four different cities had been shot in just one day and it all began to overwhelm me. There is so much darkness in the world right now and I feel helpless.

I finally realized I just needed to put my phone down and take a break from it all. There was nothing I could do at that moment.

Except say a prayer and a quiet meditation.

I felt a little better after my meditation and thought maybe I could rest now.

As I finally lay down in bed, with the news of the day turned off, the cat who had been napping suddenly got up and started sneaking up onto a bug she saw on the wall.

Oh yeah, just what I need right now. A spider. Probably a deadly one.

But, no. It was a ladybug. It was 37 degrees outside and there was a ladybug in my room.

My sister always says it's our mom visiting her when she sees a ladybug.

Oh no! The cat was going to eat my mom!

I got a tissue and ever so gently nudged my mom/ladybug onto the tissue. But what should I do with her/it? I can't put her/it outside she will freeze to death. I can't leave her here the cat will eat her.

So I took my mom/the ladybug into the bathroom and gently lay her down on my counter for the night. I even told her "stay in here away from the cat."

Then I returned to my room and told the cat "don't eat mom."

Seriously, I think this is the point I lost a bit more of my sanity.

If you don't know about the Dakota Access Pipeline and why it is being protested, The Guardian, an independent and reliable news source, has this easy-to-read post on what is happening and why. It's important to note that the original pipeline would have run through Bismarck, North Dakota. It was moved south of Bismarck to "protect wells that serve the municipal water supply". In other words, it is an environmental hazard and the citizens of Bismarck successfully fought against it. So the Army Corps of Engineers moved it to federally protected tribal lands.

If you are also following the activities at Standing Rock, here are the important phone numbers you can call and voice your opinion:

North Dakota Governor 701-328-2200

Amnesty International 212-807-8400 (ask them to send representatives to Standing Rock to assess and report on the treatment of the water protectors by our government)

White House Public Comment Line  202-456-1111

Stormy Night Social Night

I'm sitting here tonight with intermittent power, listening to the rain and thunder crashing outside. It's night two of a three-day long tornado siege that is raging across the South. Twice so far tonight I've huddled the kids into the bathroom as tornado sirens wailed and winds howled around our home.

The irony is, I moved to Tennessee six years ago when I was fleeing Hurricane Katrina. Had I known then that I was running from a hurricane state to a state known for tornadoes, I might have kept going.

I'm staying logged on to Twitter and Facebook as much as possible because it's the best way to keep in touch with friends and make sure everyone is safe. And since the satellite TV signal goes out in even a slight wind, I can track the storms and tornado paths and know when it's time to run.

Stormy, scary nights have become social media events.

Earlier this afternoon I posted to Twitter and Facebook "tonights yoga practice is knowing that teaching class isn't worth going out in dangerous weather & not being bothered by those who disagree." Most didn't disagree with me and my students were glad I let them off the hook to go out and drive in this weather just to get to yoga class.

The storm texts began about dinner time.

"You guys OK up there? No power down here"

The TV wasn't working anymore so I logged onto Facebook from my iPhone. There was our local weather channel tracking the tornado heading my way. Once the kids were safely huddled in the bathtub I went out on the front porch with my oldest to watch for the funnel cloud.

"Do you hear the sirens? R those for us?"

Yes! I texted back. Grab the baby and get to the bathroom. But put your shoes on first in case you have to walk over broken glass.

Darn Southern newbies! By next year they'll be standing on the front porch watching the storm roll in too.

Once I decided it was time to get off the porch and get in the bathroom, I saw a Tweet from a friend that the river was beginning to overflow and they were moving their electronics to the upstairs of their house.

"Hard decision -if tornado hits want stuff downstairs, flooding upstairs."

You gotta go with upstairs. If a tornado hits you can just kiss your iPad goodbye. But if it floods maybe it can be saved if it's upstairs.

The tornado party continued on Facebook once power returned.

          "Power lines down on Highway 51."

          "Half-dollar size hail down here."

           "Power out thru most of Millington and Arlington"

"Alright I'm off to bed. Someone call my cell phone when the flooding starts in Atoka."

We've got another 12 hours or so of this so I'm off to try and rest between thunder bursts myself. I'm not worried about missing a chance to run for the bathroom - I'm signed up for automatic weather alerts. If a tornado is in my immediate area every phone in this house will ring and alert me.

Social media and technology take a little bit of the unknown out of the storms and provide a little bit of piece of mind.