We hear the word tirelessly a lot, especially during and after a natural disaster. It is often said of rescue workers, “They worked tirelessly.” We’ve heard it used in recent days about the people giving aid to the victims of Hurricane Florence.

Tirelessly is an interesting word. If broken down and taken literally, it seems to indicate an inability to get tired. That doesn’t seem humanly possible to me, so I looked it up in the dictionary.

The Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth Edition and the Merriam-Webster website (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tireless) gave the most satisfying definition of all the sources I checked. Merriam-Webster defines tireless as follows:

Definition of tireless: seemingly incapable of tiring. Synonym:  indefatigable. Example: a tireless worker

The word “seemingly” makes all the difference. Take out “seemingly” and we have a completely different meaning.

Most of my blog readers probably rolled their eyes and stopped reading after the first paragraph. I can’t blame them. Life is hard. Life is busy. There are more important things than nitpicking the definition of words. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter what “tirelessly” means; however, writers must think of such things and try to use the most accurate words in their writing.

Since my last blog post

I continued to follow the news about the flooding left in the wake of Hurricane Florence, particularly in North Carolina and South Carolina. Since heavy rain reached more than 400 miles inland to the mountains of North Carolina, most of it fell east of the Eastern Continental Divide and, therefore, is draining into the rivers that empty into the Atlantic Ocean.

Ten days after the hurricane made landfall at Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina, rivers are still rising. Some are predicted to crest tomorrow. Some cities, such as Lumberton, North Carolina (where I lived for five years as a young adult) are expected to be flooded until October 5.

Think about that. Think about a flood that makes your home inaccessible for three weeks. Imagine what these people will have to go home to.

Think about the farmers who are unable to harvest this year’s cotton, soybeans, sweet potatoes, or peanuts this year. They depended on the money from those crops to make payments on the expensive equipment those crops require. Did you know that half the sweet potatoes grown in the United States are grown in North Carolina?

The flooding caused by Hurricane Florence has been in the forefront of my mind for more than a week, and the people affected by it will continue to be in my thoughts and prayers. Recovery won’t be measured in weeks or months. It will be measured in years – long after the storm is no longer making the news headlines.

The levee in Lumberton was constructed years before my arrival there. I never gave the possibility of flooding a thought while I lived there, but now – in the space of just two years – although the levee held, two hurricanes have dumped feet of rain on this flat area on I-95 halfway between Miami and New York. That’s two “500-year floods” in two years.

I’ve taken time to look through some of the photo albums I wrote about in last week’s blog post about Hurricane Florence:  My Heart is in Eastern North Carolina. We had no water damage at our house, and for that we are extremely fortunate. It is good to look at old pictures and remember special trips and memories. I’ll try not to wait until a natural disaster to revisit those photo albums.

Until my next blog post

Remember the people of eastern and central North Carolina and South Carolina who are still dealing with flood waters or the aftermath of flooding due to Hurricane Florence. Likewise, remember the people of Puerto Rico and the British Virgin Islands who are still trying to recover from Hurricane Maria which struck a year ago.

Think about the thousands of people who continue to work tirelessly to help the people affected by Hurricane Florence put the pieces of their lives back together. People have come from as at least as far away as California to make swift water rescues.

I hope you have a good book to read. I’ve been reading parts of several books but can’t quite settle in on any of them. Three that I’m reading are A Double Life, by Flynn Berry; Women, Food, and God:  An Unexpected Path to Almost Everything, by Geneen Roth; and The Harvard Medical School Guide to a Good Night’s Sleep.

If you’re a writer, I hope you have quality writing time.

Thank you for reading my blog. You could have spent the last few minutes doing something else, but you chose to read my blog. I appreciate it! I welcome your comments.

Let’s continue the conversation.

Janet