To Be Found Again
By Angie Matthiessen, Executive Director
Since just before the pandemic, my husband and I have participated in a weekly small group, couples and individuals experiencing life together. We meet weekly, rotating houses and serving dinner for one another. The fun part is we are all different ages and in various stages of life. Two babies were born last year and this group has even championed my daughter in her high school years. In fact, she wrote one of her college entrance essays on this group and how she has learned the art of how to agree and disagree while still loving each other.
There are many things I am grateful for, this being way high at the top. As we have encountered the last four years, through the challenges of pandemics and storms, we have knit ourselves together and grew in number. The theme of conversation has varied over the years, learning and sharing our faith, most certainly tackling hard conversations. Over the summer, we decided to begin a new book focused on serving in our own neighborhoods. When Helene and Milton hit, we had not yet started.
Several have significant damages, and one family lost their home, not from just one storm but repeatedly with Milton dealing the final blow when waves forcibly broke walls of windows, washing away what was left. From the series of storms, our group has experienced what could be a metaphor for all of us.
Personally, I have been watching my responses almost from above. I noticed I am not one of those people who gets in the muck and mud, leaning more towards wanting to provide shelter and a cooked meal. Over dinner, the group discussed the varied perspectives on how hard it is to ask for help when others are clearly hurting more. The layers of perspective evident in this conversation, was humbling for the group to call each other to more.
We all converged on the home lost this past weekend, their newly married dreams salvaged miraculously on a wet piece of paper – further imprinted on their souls. The neighborhood looks like a paradise lost, but the spirits are alive. As we did another layer of cleaning, I was proud that I went and offered my physical self. Being a ‘feeling’ person, I found myself looking at the dried mud, shards of glass mixed in with remnants of their home, and my heart was breaking.
And yet, spurred on by their friends, they kept going. This is how we build paradise back. Sometimes we need a push, outside ourselves. In my humble heart, I can say I have more to do on my street to love those I drive by every day.
Looking around, it does not take long to find someone whose paradise has been lost. One person, one house at a time, we can build our community back. What can you do today, tomorrow and the next day to identify your neighborhood, your people, your community? Next, what can you do to ask for help, give help, or give HOPE? We have some ways you can serve in the coming month, please visit: unitedwayccfl.org/ParadiseLost
More than anything, I wanted to share with you what is on my heart, what is stirring and changing in me, and offer up some encouragement that while our paradise may seem lost, one person, one step at a time, we will find our way back.
For more information about United Way of Charlotte County’s mission: Mobilizing the power of our community to break the cycle of poverty, please contact Angie Matthiessen, Executive Director. She can be reached at director@unitedwayccfl.org.