Heartbreaking Flood Damage

How's everything?

Hope that everyone you love is safe and your homes are OK.

For those of you not in Queensland the sheer devastation of the floods is hard to comprehend. Boats, Pontoons, Tyres, and other debris being carried along in the fast moving river.

You see it on TV, read about it in the newspaper and it touches your heart. When you go out to help a friend, and discover that they no longer have a shop (see pictures) that put a lump in my throat.

You can see the tide line at the ceiling and in some cases on the roof of Houses where inhabitants are putting everything they owned on the front lawn. This photo is one house of dozens, all that's left is an empty shell. And the residents only have whatever they could carry when they evacuated. On the roads are cars whose owners moved them to higher ground that still became submerged, utes in places you have no idea how they will ever be retrieved.

My thoughts go out to everyone impacted, and really that's all of us in Queensland, all over Australia and right around the world. The devastation is huge and if the flood water didn't get you, it's likely it touched someone you know.

It's heartbreaking, and if my emotions are this high, I'm in tears as I write this, I can't begin to comprehend what those whose homes and businesses that have been affected by the floodwaters are going through.

If you like me, were relatively unscathed, what's a power-cut and loss of internet, perhaps now is a good time to rid yourself of that excess stuff you are holding onto, that you'll sort through one day in the future. Keep what you would want to save in a flood, fire or any other disaster and consign the rest of it to the bin.

Friends of mine moved back to the family home (a Queenslander) in Graceville during the year, their sons had been renting from them, and I know they were evacuated and many of their household items were stored under the house and that the water come up to the floorboards at the peak. Devastating!!!

A few years ago another friend was sorting through her stuff, what was sorted went upstairs, the stuff to sort was under the house including all her photos. She lost the lot! Her words "I wish I'd taken them upstairs and spent some time every evening to sort through and find the ones I wanted to keep."

My achilles heel is paper, ideas, courses, planning, goal setting, cards, information etc. I spent yesterday dumping boxes of it. I realised that last year I didn't review my aspirations for the following 12 months and hung onto all the stuff from 2009. All 2010 I was spinning my wheels, no wonder, my environment was clogged and anchoring to the past!!!

If you want opportunity and abundance in 2011 what are you willing to let go off to make room for it?

Best Wishes to all, Debra :-)