Merry Non Denominational Winter Holiday!

Allison, Emily, and Kaillee Hilton

So, I've been sitting here trying to find some sort of Christmas-y jpg to put on my blog, and well, nothing I searched for hit home for me. I looked for holiday images of the Mississippi Coast - none. I looked for Kris Kringle - meh. I looked for Peace images - same old. After exhausting my Google abilities to no real avail, I started thinking; What is it in this world that is important to me, and gives me a reason to want Peace on Earth during my lifetime?

Of course, there is Jeff, all my little creatures that share our home, our parents, our friends, music, art, and all the other things that give me a reason to get up in the morning..... and then I remembered that my sis-in-law, Kristen, sent me some photos of my nieces the other day.

I cannot think of a better reason to want Peace on this Earth than for these young humans. And I don't mean just them, even though they are the closest to my heart.... symbolically, they stand for all the children in this world. Even closer to home, they stand for all the kids who are currently displaced due to Hurricane Katrina. For the last 3+ months, these precious girls have been staying in different homes, but not their own. And they are lucky... many of the Katrina Kids are still in tents, travel trailers, hotels or shelters.

Katrina left our beautiful Coast with the biggest challenge we've ever faced. To be able to recoup after she shredded the Coast to its very core is a challenge all in itself, but the bigger challenge rests with the people: love, laugh, and rebuild. And rebuild we shall.

My Christmas wish to all of the Coast is for 2006 to be a time of renewal and rebuilding, both of physical locations, and of the soul. It breaks my heart to be so far away, but know my heart is there with all of you.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Kwaanza, Solstice, or whatever you celebrate....

Alive in Truth

The New Orleans Disaster Oral History & Memory Project

Alive in Truth is an all-volunteer, grassroots effort to record oral and written history about the lives of displaced New Orleanians, in their own words.

The project is founded and coordinated by New Orleans native Abe Louise Young. She is a nationally-awarded poet who's also been a Fellow for the Project in Interpreting the Texas Past, the Danish-American Dialogue on Human Rights, and the Jewish Women's Archive (collecting oral history of Jewish activists in New Orleans.)

The project is supported by generous friends, volunteer interviewers, therapists, transcribers, photographers, and consultants.