It has been over a year since I have visited Emmitsburg, Maryland to participate in a FEMA engagement.  And even so, it is like I was here yesterday.  This place is just so familiar to me now having been here so many times over the years.

I like it here, not to stay forever, but to visit.  The grounds at the National Emergency Training Center are wide open and the campus is always filled with kindred spirits.  It is the kindred spirits that really make coming here so worthwhile. To be with others like you – others that share your passion and commitment – is a special gift.

I am only here for a few days and then I am back on the plane headed home, but even these few days will feed my soul.  After a long winter and a series of tragic events (locally and around the world) that fall under the purview of emergency management, I want to spend a little time talking to others like me who understand my passion and frustration.  There is therapy in such chats.

Plus, one of my dearest of friends – Barbara – is here in Emmitsburg.  Every chance to spend time laughing with her is cherished. The older I get, the more I realize that even if the time we do get to spend with folks we enjoy may be fleeting, so much can be shared in the moments you do have.

In my moments in Emmitsburg over these few days I will work, laugh, share, and listen.  I will also hug all the folks I have not seen for far too long.  One never knows if they will pass through a place again.  I hope to visit here many more times in my lifetime, but even if I never come again I will make sure I leave with my comrades the same joy they give me to take home. 😉

Day one thousand three hundred and sixty-nine of the new forty – obla di obla da

Ms. C