Hi, I rarely respond to comments- positive or negative- and am making an exception today. Your comment struck me.

I am not young. I am a 46 year old grown woman and a mother. I have lived in North Carolina most of my life.

I am not a journalist. I am a writer, an essayist, with no boss and no one calling the shots except the people and community I am deeply connected to and responsible for. I'm not paid for my writing.

I am making an exception this morning because I am up early on a Sunday making coffee and packing sandwiches, ready to head up the mountain where people are sleeping outdoors in tents three weeks after this disaster and it is cold, it has started to snow in some spots, and people I love and care about are in a real desperate way-- because they have never experienced anything like this before. Ever.

Please consider taking that hardness off your heart and stepping out into the world with other people, into community, today. Respond to the needs of the people out there in your town, your neighbors, instead of me on the internet. They might need you and you might need them.