If These Trees Could Talk
{Many people across the southeast have suffered from the damage of Helene in ways I cannot imagine and this small piece of it in my hometown is in no way intended to minimize the obvious losses that are incomparable to these I write here. My heart goes out to those experiencing great, grievous losses.} If you’ve spent more than 15 minutes with me over the last month, you have heard that my hometown was hit hard by Hurricane Helene. This one seemingly came out of nowhere. My family there went to sleep having secured porch furniture knowing that the expected 35-45 miles per hour winds would certainly stir some things around. As the hurricane shifted east, our little town swayed, bent, twisted and literally broke in pieces under 103 miles per hour winds that decided to rest a spell over it. It was not welcome. As my brother tried to wait until the sun came up to assess the damage, all manner of things waited in the dark... not at all where they should be. Just before sun up my brot
