It has now been almost a month since Hurricane Harvey came ashore in TX. The newscasters and newspaper writers have exhausted their thesaurus of all spectacular adjectives to describe the hurricane and subsequent flood damage to the southeast Texas coast.
There are many who have been devastated by this unprecedented (for Texas) natural disaster. I’m one of the fortunate ones who escaped damage or loss from the storm. The moment I realized my family and home would be OK I subconsciously switched into help my neighbors mode. I’ve been fortunate to work with a great relief organization who has a huge team that has funneled tons of relief supplies and aid to thousands of my neighbors. I basically helped by letting them use my home and showing them where to go and how to get around Houston. I spent a lot of time on the phone, meeting up with volunteers, buying relief supplies and emailing to facilitate logistics and that’s really about it.
I don’t feel like I did anything more than thousands of others who were here and elsewhere when the floods hit. I didn’t risk my life in a boat to rescue people or brave a swift flowing stream to save someones family pet. I just tried to be the kind of neighbor I’d want to live near if I was the one in trouble. Sometimes it feels like there are so many people out there who need help but we can personally only help a small number of them. I guess that’s where having a team helps out.
Besides the satisfaction of being a good neighbor, I did get one other benefit from the Hurricane. About a year ago I started my Mike Centex LIFE project. At the end of October 2016 it floundered completely. It ran up on the rocks of life and stopped on the reef. I mean, it wasn’t pining for the fjords, that bird was dead.!
I was just coming off an incredible 2016 Fall Workshop at Jack Spirko’s Nine mile Farm where I’d presented to a group of about 40 super sharp entrepreneurs, homesteaders and preparedness experts. I was really pumped when I came home and had plans to break out some incredible videos on numerous topics. 48 hours after getting home I got a call that my Dad was in the Hospital. He’d been struggling with dementia for over a decade and I knew his condition would not reverse itself. For the the next four months things just got continually worse until they found a huge cancerous tumor in his stomach, that blocked his esophagus and finally, after 12 days in hospice, my father died on Valentines Day.
Needless to say it was heartbreaking and tough to go through that experience and frankly, I didn’t have anything positive to share with anyone. That all changed in late August 2017 when my focus was completely diverted/distracted to the possibility of a major hurricane hitting my home. Almost without thinking I just grabbed my go pro and headed out to video whatever happened. Some folks later told me they enjoyed them and Steven Harris told me my amateur camera work gave it a higher degree of integrity. I guess Harvey helped me get past my the loss of my lifelong hunting and fishing partner, enough to think of focusing on others more than myself.
It still seems silly sometimes but my goal and mission for Mike Centex LIFE was to simply share what I have and what I’ve learned with others who may not have had the same things or experiences. That sounds totally bland and generic when I say it out loud, but in my head it made sense. I don’t really know if anyone really cares or finds any value in what I offer but that’s OK. Its worth at least what you paid for it and it is all done with honesty and good intentions.
I’ve been very fortunate and have found great joy in teaching young kids how to fish in our ponds and watch them land their first perch. I’ve found even more joy taking adults, who have never had the opportunity to learn the true art of hunting, and teaching them to be safe and ethical hunters in just a weekend or two. I’ll admit it, I’m selfish. I enjoy the satisfaction I get in helping others who have a desire to learn and become better people. I love learning and teaching new skills. I like taking knowledge passed to me by many who are long gone and sharing it with those younger than me.
Hurricane Harvey has temporarily ruined many lives, but it gave me an open door to help people and it showed me it was more important to try to help others and make them feel good than it was to sit around and feel bad for myself.
So as weird as it sounds… Thanks Harvey.
Mike Centex
MIKE CENTEX LIFE 