Anyone who knows anything about me, and trust me I’m far from a household name, knows that I spend my time living between Calgary, Alberta, and rural Prince Edward Island. Alongside my real estate investment consulting business, I work as a freelance novel editor and an author of predominantly horror fiction novels.
What I woke up to last Friday morning, June 21, was definitely horrifying. But it wasn’t fiction. It was real. A storm that originated in Denver, Colorado, had travelled to Calgary, causing torrential rains and massive flooding in the city overnight. At least 26 neighbourhoods representing about 100,000 people had to be evacuated. In High River, a small town outside the city that was hit hardest by the floods, at least three people were reported dead.
The first thing I did was go outside in pouring rain to see if my gutters were clean. The last thing I wanted was my basement to flood. I got a ladder, removed a few debris blockages and then checked the basement, breathing a big sigh of relief once I discovered it was bone dry.
But I wasn’t out of the woods, or water, yet. I immediately went online to see if my neighbourhood was on the evacuation list. Another sigh of relief. I wasn’t on the list.
Then I phoned my close friends in Calgary to make sure they were okay. Another green light. Some said they had opened their arms to flood victims and had people from the hardest hit area, High River, on route to their homes after salvaging what little personal belongings they could after the evacuation order, which gave them little time to leave, came down.
Okay, I thought. I’m safe, my friends are safe. Time to push forward on my prose, complete Assaulted Souls 2, the second instalment in the post-apocalyptic trilogy I’m writing. Knock out that 2,000 word quota. Go, go, go.
But, one sentence into the thirteenth chapter I stopped. Wait a minute, I thought. I’m Canadian. We help people. Just because I’m okay, it doesn’t mean everything is okay just because I choose to ignore it. No. All it means is I’m selfish. Think about what the Dalai Lama said:
“If we think only of ourselves, forget about other people, then our minds occupy very small area. Inside that small area, even tiny problem appears very big. But the moment you develop a sense of concern for others, you realize that, just like ourselves, they also want happiness; they also want satisfaction. When you have this sense of concern, your mind automatically widens. At this point, your own problems, even big problems, will not be so significant. The result? Big increase in peace of mind. So, if you think only of yourself, only your own happiness, the result is actually less happiness. You get more anxiety, more fear.”
Forget about your piece of fiction for a day or two, I thought. It means nothing in the context of the very real problems that exist in your own backyard.
So I went to work on another project–project help flood victims. The first thing I did was go on Kijiji, a popular website that allows you to post free and paid classified ads. I was surprised at what I found. Literally hundreds of ads from people across the province, even across the country, offering help in any way they could. Complete strangers opening up their doors to flood victims, offering a warm, dry place to stay for free. People were offering to do sandbagging, supply and deliver food, transport victims, anything and everything imaginable to ease the suffering of these poor flood victims. Someone had even set up a Facebook page, Help Calgary Flood Victims. People were tweeting like crazy offering assistance of all kinds.
Here’s the ad I posted on Kijiji:
The Alberta premier, the city mayor, commented on how resilient and helpful the citizens were behaving, how they were pulling together and opening their hearts, homes and wallets to stranded victims. Emergency shelters in a city that has been declared a state of emergency are barely occupied due to the good-hearted nature of Canadians.
Needless to say, my ad got results. In one hour 96 people had viewed it. A few hours later I received a call from a man, I’ll call him Bob, who had lost his house, most of his belongings in the High River flood. Along with his wife and two small children, he’s staying an empty Calgary house. Not a lick of furniture.Traumatized, the family wanted to watch news reports to find out when the evacuation order for High River would be lifted so they could return home and try and salvage some of their belongings.
Bob told me they needed food, air mattresses and a TV. Since it was 11:30 at night, it was a little late to go shopping for food or air mattresses, but I did offer him my TV, saying I would deliver it immediately if he wanted. Thirty minutes later I showed up to the house and dropped the TV off. Bob’s wife and small daughter were upstairs when I arrived so I didn’t get a chance to meet them. But, I did meet Bob’s six-year-old son, who told me he would be sleeping on the floor that night because the family was short one air mattress. Bob thanked me profusely and off I went, feeling the kind of fulfilment and happiness that money can’t buy; knowing that, in some small way, I was able to positively impact the life of a family who’s probably lost everything.
And, driving home, looking at devastatingly high flood waters, something else occurred to me. I’m Canadian. It’s what we do.
I could say a lot more. But, I’m sure you’ll forgive me, something else is more important right now. I’m on my way to Bob’s temporary house with an air mattress for his six-year-old son, groceries and a cheque for $200. That’s more important than writing this blog. Then, after that, I think I’ll drive around the city in search of other victims who need help.
The Dalai Lama is right. True happiness, true purpose, is realized only when helping others.
If you get a chance, give back. You’ll be glad you did.