My World With Words

Today is National Chocolate Cupcake Day. This is an easy day to celebrate, and as far as I’m concerned, a belated celebration is also legit! So in case you’re reading this post past the actual holiday, I give you permission to eat a chocolate cupcake. Or two, if they’re of the mini-cupcake variety (if you’re like me it’s hard to stop with just two of those, so I’m going to be good and go to the bakery to get just one regular-sized cupcake).

We all need things to celebrate, and today I was looking for a holiday I could easily support. We have a great bakery nearby, and what do you know? They had a special on chocolate cupcakes. So I’m satisfied.

Image credits: Spider cupcakes (below) © azurita–stock.adobe.com, Regular cupcakes (above) © olyina–stock.adobe.com 

I learned something last night.

It’s one thing to watch a disaster from a distance, in the safety of your own home, when you have no personal stake in what’s happening. It’s another when your 20-year-old nephew has decided to stay in New Orleans and wait out the hurricane.

I watched the Hurricane Ida coverage last night as much as I could, but it was so stressful imagining what my nephew would be going through and not knowing where he was. I have no idea where he stayed, except I know it’s not in the house he now calls home. He’s a student at Tulane and perhaps the university had a place for the students to wait out the storm. At any rate, now he’s safe and home, but communication is difficult and will only get worse. After all, how do you charge up your phone when there’s no power?

No word yet on what Tulane will decide to do. The semester just started. It would be hard to conduct classes with no power, not to mention how the students would take care of themselves without it. The last I heard, it could be weeks or even months before power is restored to New Orleans.

I pray for my nephew and all the people affected by Hurricane Ida. It will never be the same watching hurricane coverage again, for no longer will I be able to separate myself from what is going on. I always believed I had a great deal of empathy for people in those situations, and perhaps I did, but this adds a whole level of understanding.

Image credit: copyright EvgeniyQW–stock.adobe.com