"Lock Down"

This morning was one of those where you aren't sure if you are dreaming or not.

I awoke early hearing what I thought was someone knocking on our front door. This might not seem strange but we do have a doorbell and so knocking isn't something that usually happens, especially early in the morning. I dozed back to sleep but couldn't relax so got up. No sooner had I come through the bedroom door than my daughter called asking if we were aware of what was going on, that we were under "lock down"?

About 1/2 mile from us the police had an apartment building surrounded as someone had been taking sniper shots from one of the units. We were all ordered to keep our windows closed, our blinds closed and doors locked until the "situation" had been resolved. Opening my blinds and such is the first thing I do each morning so at once I felt "trapped" in the dark. And of course our dogs didn't care about anything except going outside to take care of "business". I did go out with them and felt like I was in a ghost town as every house had their blinds closed and not a vehicle was moving.

Within about 3 hours the gunman had tried to leave the apartment in a car and was captured. He was intoxicated (surprise!) and gave no reason for what he was doing. They did find assault weapons inside, one of which was an AK47 so he did mean business. At this time they still have no motive for what he did.

The entire incident really got me to thinking. The entire time we were in New Orleans I knew we weren't exactly safe. Living in the murder capital of the nation brings some reality to that feeling. Each time I would step outside to let my dogs take care of business I sort of "cringed" at each passing vehicle. Stepping back inside our FEMA trailer brought a slight sense of safety but even there I always wondered how safe we really were.

This morning I realized that we aren't ever really safe, not like we think we are. We are now over 800 miles from the murder capital of the nation and it is still right in our back yard, literally.

So many freedoms and so many things that we take for granted on a daily basis. So many things we get comfortable with and therefore not as alert as we should be. I'm not saying we should live in a state of fear all the time but we should take note of our blessings and not take them for granted.

It never felt so good to open blinds, open windows and doors and step outside to feel the breeze and feel the freedom. But I still found myself crouching just a bit!

Thank God for your freedom and His protection.

Until next time . . . Susan and Monty