From a world away

I watch.

I watch when hurricanes start forming off the coast of Africa.

I watch as they move closer to Florida. Closer to my parents, my family, my husband's family, my friends.

I watch as they grow stronger or weaker and I breathe a sigh of relief as they pass by, sparing the ones I love.

But this one? Katrina? She missed my family and friends in Florida, but she hit my family in Alabama. My friends in Mississippi and Louisiana. And thousands upon thousands of people I do not know but my heart breaks for.

I watch what little news we get on our one news channel on the Armed Forces Network. An hour or two of CNN, then an hour or two of MSNBC, then and hour or two of Fox news (if I can stand the hype and hysterics of the anchors on Fox, which is, by far, the worst news channel in the history of the WORLD. Bill O'Reilly. Enough said, yes?).

I watch stories unfold online. I look at pictures of the devastation, not just to the landscape, but on the faces of the people who are caught up in this tragedy.

And my heart breaks.