What It Means

Theres this saying here, "I know what it means to miss New Orleans." I know I will be part of that group who know what it means.

Not everything is perfect and we've got a lot of room for growth here, but we're working on it. There is so much to miss and yet some things are better left forgotten.

I won't miss the smell of sysco soap, the potholes, and refilling the paper towels at 10pm when I'm trying to go to bed. I won't miss turning off the light in the shower room every time I walk by, sweating through 2 shirts a day in the summer, and the fluorescent lights everywhere. These things remind me of my job and the work and the unfun things, but lucky or perhaps unlucky for me there is so much more I will miss.

I'll miss elephant pants Tuesday, doing dishes after breakfast for Miss Lorraine, and gumbo. I'll miss Wednesday night church, Fine Dining Tuesday with Kathy, and taking inventory. I'll miss late night conversations with volunteers, helping a woman in the grocery store pick out crackers, and keeping my chaco tan year round. I'll miss the neighborhoods of New Orleans, red beans and rice, and the river. I'll miss the food pantry, being called "baby" by loving strangers, and the Saints football parties. I'll miss telling people why I'm buying 15 loaves of bread, the beautiful oak trees, and all the fried chicken.

I will miss so much, although I know I will be back and I will watch this city grow more and I will see the people I love again.

But most of all, I will miss the magic of this heat. It gets hot. I won't miss the sweat or the showers or the need for fans and ice and anything cool, but I'll miss the heat. Because down here in New Orleans, hearing the stories of Katrina almost 13 years later and seeing the work the people here still put in to rebuild the community of fellowship that is so deeply rooted in the shifting grounds of this city, in the heat of the Louisiana sun, I get goosebumps.

When you've never been hotter in your life and someone says something with so much love for their neighbor you get goosebumps, that's something you will miss.

Maybe someday you too, will know what it means.

Until next time, we're still living minute by minute....