Counting blessings

Did you see the video of the semi truck being ripped apart by a little tornado?  It's knots my stomach every time the media runs it.  And the utter devestation of Joplin Missouri appalls me.  And yet - people are helping one another.  No one is sitting around saying, "Why doesn't the gummint DO something?  We need help"  Everyone is pitching in and doing what they can to help one another.  I hope, when it's my turn to face disaster, I can do so with such courage and grace.

I am SO glad I don't have to face tornadoes!  Or floods that will cover the entire town 15 feet deep in a toxic soup of diesel oil and sewage.  I am SO grateful to have just a day - maybe ten degrees cooler and a few centimeter's wetter than average, but just a day when I go to work and come home and nothing has happened.  What can I do to help those not so lucky?  How can I propitiate the fates to maintain my run of luck?

In our writing group, when something good happens, like getting an agent or having a poem published or something of that ilk, the lucky writer must bring chocolate.  Partially, this is to share the celebration, but partially it is a sacrifice to the muses, to keep ill-fortune away from us.  I will be doing a reading and book signing on June 3rd and feel it's time to sacrifice a bag of Lindor balls with my fellow followers of the art to please the muse and bring lots of customers in to the store.  And maybe a little bowlful of Lindor balls to give out one with each book . . .