One Year After Helene

River Knoll community, July 2025

One year after Helene in Western North Carolina (WNC), homes are still in disrepair, roads are still on the “need to repair” list (including I-40), and friends and neighbors continue to seek to recreate “normal” in their lives. The devastation covered a land mass greater than the state of Connecticut. Visitors to our home still get a glimpse of the disaster in our area during the tours of Asheville and the WNC region.

Demolition of the McDonald’s In the Biltmore Village, July 2025.

We had nearly 32″ of rain over three days, which led to 100-year flooding, resulting in 108 verified deaths as of June 17, 2025, over 2,000 landslides, over 400 road closings, over 100 bridges washed out, over 200 swift water rescues, 8.5 million cubic yards of debris, over 100,000 homes without water for 53 days, and power was out in some areas for weeks.

Tourism is vital to Asheville and WNC, and we certainly need it! Slowly, some businesses are coming back. Biltmore Village and the River Arts District are still recovering from the storm’s effects. Swanannoa, Burnsville, Chimney Rock, Marshall, Hot Springs, and other communities and towns in WNC appear to have a longer way to go in their recovery.

What did we learn from Helene in WNC?

Climate change is real, and the flood maps were way off! We are paying attention to other climate change events throughout our country and in the world. Seeing climate change on a screen is one thing; experiencing it is truly understanding its impact is another.

Neighbors helping neighbors, September 28, 2024

While individualism is a core American value rooted in our nation’s history, emphasizing personal freedom, self-reliance, and individual rights, commUNITY was essential in dealing with Helene’s aftermath. It became necessary to know our neighbors and their needs so that we could support one another, despite our differences in opinions and beliefs.

We had to embrace common knowledge, seek the truth, and reject and refute conspiracy theories, fake news, and false reports. Our local NPR station, Blue Ridge Public Radio* (BPR), became a lifeline. It was the news source we could trust and rely on. Their on-the-ground reporters gave us up-to-date news. They carried the twice-a-day live news updates from the City of Asheville and the Water Resources Department, Buncombe County, law enforcement, health services, and Duke Power

We learned to challenge assumptions. Living in the mountains does not mean we are immune to hurricanes and tornadoes. We take water for granted and fail to recognize how much it is a part of our daily lives!

We learned that the role of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging was essential in support and healing. Some of us possessed unique gifts, talents, and passions that contributed to our recovery. Some of us had tools to share that benefited the community. Some of us relied on others for essentials like water, ice, food, medication, and even a battery-powered light to turn on at night. Some of us needed a smile, a kind word, a voice of encouragement, a laugh, and a hug. We needed to remind each other that we were in this together and we would overcome this disaster and continue to do so.

We also learned the importance of the Boy Scout motto, Be Prepared, and having essentials on hand, including cash, water, food, a battery-powered radio, blankets, a gas grill or stove, and a generator.

Daily gathering of neighbors for dinner, October 10, 2024

What did we lose from Helene in WNC?

Besides losing water (from handwashing, showers, washing dishes, and clothes), and power. We also lost many other things. Some of us lost everything, including family, friends, coworkers, pets, and livestock; all of us lost something. We lost innocence and safety. We lost routines like going to school, work, and going to the grocery store. We have lost confidence and hope in the systems that are supposed to help us, including those of politicians.

What are we grateful for from Helene in WNC?

Chimney Rock – Broad River debris removal, August 11, 2025

We are grateful for heroes, such as first responders (locally and nationally), the Asheville Water Department staff (and all the support beyond WNC), Duke Power, and all the utilities from across the country that came to help restore power, as well as the tree services and debris removal services. We are grateful for the World Central Kitchen and faith-based organizations that provided us with hot meals when we couldn’t prepare them for ourselves. We are grateful to our family and friends outside our community who continually reach out to check on how we are doing and ask how they can assist us. We are thankful for our neighbors. Our relationships have deepened. We recognize the gift of connection and feel blessed! We love and appreciate Asheville and WNC more than ever!

Please visit and support WNC as we continue to rebuild.

I wrote several blogs back in late 2024 about our experience with Helene.

Are You Ready For Disaster?

What Is A Typical Day Like Without Power, Internet, or Water?

I Need to Say “Thank You!”

Four Reasons NOT to Come to Asheville, NC, Right Now

Background on My Last Blog…

* Blue Ridge Public Radio lost $330,000 in funding with the termination of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Please support BPR and your local NPR radio stations with a sustaining monthly gift. Any and every contribution helps to maintain this vital source of news and information throughout our country.

I Got Goosed!

I attended my first Wild Goose Festival (also known as The Goose) in 2014, in Hot Springs, NC. The Goose delivers on six commitments: Co-Creation, Storytelling, Radical Hospitality, Real Relationships, Non-Violence, and Always Evolving. Goose participants include social justice advocates, misfits, mystics, prophets, sages, storytellers, and seekers—this is where you experience the disconnect of spirituality with certainty. The Goose is a safe space for connecting, learning, pondering, and transforming. The Goose is where I got introduced to Reverend William Barber II, Tripp Fuller, Brian McLaren, Sara Miles, Jim Wallis, and Lisa Anderson. There was music from David Lamotte, Lyric, and Jars of Clay, among others.

The primary outcome of attending the Goose was a call for action! I knew I needed to return in 2015. The highlight for me at the 2015 Goose was Bree Newsom Bass, who climbed the South Carolina State Capitol flagpole to remove the Confederate Flag! This festival was about peacemaking in a time of Black Lives Matter, following the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, in August of 2014.

I kept returning to the Goose until it moved from Hot Springs, NC, to VanHoy Farms & Campground in Union Grove, NC, in 2022.

I returned to the Goose this year. Once again, a great experience, but I missed sitting in the French Broad River, cooling off, and getting re-baptized in nature. I missed the giant old-growth trees that shaded the Goose participants in Hot Springs. Change makes you realize what you take for granted and expect.

The map of the 2025 Goose

There were tents set up for speakers, presenters, panel discussions, music, art, cinema, yoga, book sellers, and conversations. Even the United Methodist Church and Episcopalians had tents!

Some speakers shared their Holy Spirit moments of recognizing that LGBTQ+ people are not sinners and their love for a person of the same sex was not a sin. There were others like Aaron Davis, who spoke on From Guns to Trees, a former NRA fundraiser, who realized after listening to Reverend William Barber II at the 2015 Goose that he and the NRA were oppressors. They were not leaving the world a better place for tomorrow’s child.

Sarah McCammon and Ray Waters, Beyond Belief: Navigating Post-Evangelical Faith, shared their transformations away from conservative evangelical “truth.” Why would God give “truth” to a small group of people who practiced exclusivity? They pointed out the danger of the moral majority (which is neither moral nor a majority) of fusing the evangelical church with politics. It’s mean-spirited.

John Pavlovitz – The Christian Left and the Christians Who Left

John Pavlovitz, The Christian Left and the Christians Who Left, shared that he is having a hard time being a Christian today. He asked, “What can we learn from MAGA Christianity?” After all, caring for the least of these is not part of the American Dream. He calls for seeking to be partners, not owners, and to fight kingdom building like Jesus did. He challenged participants to know their community, go to the gap they see, and act upon it. Make all people feel visible as Jesus did.

Mike Maeshiro pointed out that Jesus made it clear that radical redemptive love doesn’t have room for an eye-for-an-eye. He suggested looking in the mirror and asking yourself if you are entitled to hurt others. Maeshiro reminded us to stay hopeful with Unitarian Minister Theodore Parker’s words, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

Lisa Sharon Harper, Robb Ryerse, Rev Dr. Perzavia Praylow, and Robb Schenck discuss Christian Nationalism

The panel discussion with Lisa Sharon Harper, Robb Ryerse, Rev Dr. Perzavia Praylow, and Robb Schenck on Christian Nationalism was informative and concerning. The number one concern among conservative evangelicals today is transgender people. Love is not what it says; love is what it does. Do not confuse white Christian Nationalism with holiness. Christian Nationalism is a new form of the Crusades. The words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer still hold, “The Church is the church only when it exists for others…not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tell men of every calling what it means to live for Christ, to exist for others.” They suggested that what needs to happen in the church begins by following the lead of women – white guys need to be quiet! Get transformed!

Gee Bree, Dividing Bone and Marrow – an exercise in differentiating between sexual and romantic attraction, and other lessons from Ace Theology, facilitated an enlightening conversation on asexuality and helped us understand sexual and romantic attraction, including what the church has taught. I have more to learn from her facilitation!

Grace Ji-Sum Kim, “When God Became White”

My last Goose experience was with Grace Ji-Sun Kim, a Presbyterian professor of theology at the Earlham School of Religion, who spoke about her book, “When God Became White.” She began by stating, “Everything is connected to race. Race influences how we act and behave daily.” Kim shared that she was an Asian immigrant girl who grew up with a white Jesus. Warner Sallman’s painting, The Head of Christ, hung on the family’s living room wall to continuously reinforce that Christ was white and so was God. The Church was and continues to be a significant source of racism and sexism in the world today. As a result, how we know God is how we behave. How we treat others determines our racism. Before there were Black/White labels, people were differentiated by Christian and non-Christian.

The truth is, Jesus was not white, but you can’t have a savior who does not look like you! The Church needs to stop becoming like white people. How are we going to move away from a white male God? Kim suggested we begin by seeing God as a verb – see God as active and as wisdom. Like the warning label on cigarette packages, the Bible needs a warning label. Getting rid of racism and sexism is at the heart of the Bible. We need EVERYONE at the table!

My 2025 Goose experience still lingers as I ponder, think, and reflect on who I saw and heard. I am moved to act upon what I learned and experienced.

Go forth into the world in peace.
Be of good courage.
Hold fast that which is good.
Render to no one evil for evil.
Strengthen the fainthearted.
Support the weak.
Help the afflicted.
Show love to everyone.
Love and serve the Lord,
rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit;
and the blessing of almighty God,
the Father, the + Son, and the Holy Spirit,
be among you and remain with you always. Amen.

Join me at the 2026 Wild Goose Festival, September 3-6. For more information, including ticket details, visit wildgoosefestival.org.

 

How Do You Relieve Stress?

In a recent coaching session, we discussed stress and strategies for managing it. The client mentioned she was practicing meditation, yoga, and deep breathing.

I acknowledged that all those practices are beneficial. I also pointed out that these activities are focused on herself and turning inward. I asked her what she was doing to help or serve others, turning outward.

She asked me to share more. I learned early on that people are either givers or grabbers. Givers seem to be the happiest and least stressed among us.

I shared that I’ve always found the best stress reliever to be helping and serving those in need. When we look out for others, it takes our focus away from us and on others. We are less likely to compare ourselves to others; in fact, we tend to look at those in need as a catalyst for recognizing the blessings we have and to be grateful. Endorphins and dopamine kick in!

Throughout my life, my work has always been about serving and helping others. Instead of doing what I love, I found that I loved what I did – making a difference in others’ lives.