We’ve burned the last of them. The scent will be in the air for days.
\nBut then it doesn’t often “smell” nice around here as we have the
\ngoats and the chickens.<\/p>\n
I feel so far removed from what I once was. Living in an expensive
\napartment in the city, with a wonderful view of said city. At night.
\nAll the lights. It was amazing. And I didn’t appreciate it then.<\/p>\n
I never stopped to “smell the roses.” And smelling the undead’s
\nburned remains in the air I wish I had stopped every time to smell
\nactual roses. I can barely conjure up the scent in my mind.<\/p>\n
I was always on the go. Always looking for that next story. When
\nI wasn’t looking for the next story I was entertaining, schmoozing,
\nliving the life.<\/p>\n
I was single. I wasn’t near any family. Penny was my family. As she
\nis now, still. No kids…and now I may never have them.<\/p>\n
I never stopped to think that I should “find” a husband and settle
\ndown. I had the life as far as I was concerned. All that other stuff
\ncould come later. But now there isn’t a later. Now there is just
\nthe day to day survival.<\/p>\n
I’m here. Alone. As I always was. There is no one to complain to
\nabout the stench in the air except for the people who have to smell
\nthe same stench WITH me.<\/p>\n
I’m alone. But I’m not. I have these people. What we know of each
\nother is that we all have to get up and struggle to survive every
\nsingle day.<\/p>\n
What we did in the Before just doesn’t matter to anyone but each
\nof ourselves. Our memories. How long will they carry us? What good
\nare they?<\/p>\n
Will they help us rebuild? Will they help us to feel a sense of purpose
\nin order to keep moving on? To keep trying? To keep living?<\/p>\n
What is driving all of us? We could each of us just end it and be done.
\nThe world is so horrid right now. But we keep going.<\/p>\n
I have to cover my nose to get through this day. I have to shower
\nas much as I can because we, here, have the luxury of running water
\nno matter how cold it is. And I need to feel clean if nothing else.<\/p>\n
I had assumed when I arrived here, that these people had been
\ntogether from the beginning. But having been with them here at
\nthis motel for awhile now. I have learned that they did not know each
\nother. They all found each other here and there till we all ended up
\nat this roadside motel.<\/p>\n
But you could not look at us and know that. That we were all essentially
\nstrangers weeks ago. A couple months ago.<\/p>\n
We interact as family does. What binds us? Is it the everyday struggle?
\nThe fact we understand each other and how we’re all feeling?<\/p>\n
What binds us?<\/p>\n
Trina trusts me with her girls as if I’d always known them.
\nRobert walks into my room to fix this or that. And the modest we
\nonce felt in the Before is not present now.<\/p>\n
We have adapted. We have become what we all are now. Together.
\nThat is what binds us.<\/p>\n
Knowing that we all have experienced this horrific change to our
\nworld and we are still here. Surviving. We are the survivors.<\/p>\n
And every day that we continue to be survivors we are even more
\nbound together.<\/p>\n
As we help each other. As we care for one another. This is what
\nwill help us rebuild what we once had.<\/p>\n
Sam<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We’ve burned the last of them. The scent will be in the air for days. But then it doesn’t often “smell” nice around here as we have the goats and the chickens. I feel so far removed from what I once was. Living in an expensive apartment in the city, with a wonderful view of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":50,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-still-here"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.humanityscar.com\/sentinel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.humanityscar.com\/sentinel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.humanityscar.com\/sentinel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.humanityscar.com\/sentinel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.humanityscar.com\/sentinel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.humanityscar.com\/sentinel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78,"href":"https:\/\/www.humanityscar.com\/sentinel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77\/revisions\/78"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.humanityscar.com\/sentinel\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/50"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.humanityscar.com\/sentinel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.humanityscar.com\/sentinel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.humanityscar.com\/sentinel\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}