All We Need Is Love

When you’re a self-proclaimed—and probably publicly recognized—Monica Geller, it’s extremely difficult to accept the fact that not everything is in your control.

While I do take almost obsessive control at times over what I eat, how my house looks, what shoes Randel can and can’t wear (just kidding—kinda), I really struggle with not being able to make all my loved ones happy all the time.

I have this almost uncontrollable desire to make sure my parents are taken care of, my brothers have everything they need, my friends know how important they are, etc.

It's incredibly hard for me to know someone is hurting/lost/insecure.

It’s even harder to know I can’t do anything about it.

I like taking care of people. I feed off helping others. I truly believe it’s what I was meant to do.

So in light of the devastating tornado that tore through Moore, Oklahoma, yesterday, I’m feeling particularly helpless.

I can’t help thinking how different life was yesterday morning. As I got ready for work today, I started crying thinking about how some people don’t have a work to go to. Some people don’t have a home to get ready in. Some people aren’t here anymore.

While I wasn’t directly affected by the tragedy (in that my house is still standing and all my friends and family are safe and accounted for), I have friends and coworkers who lost their homes.

I wish I could bring back everything they lost—including the taken-for-granted feeling that home is a safe place. I wish my two-bedroom house could hold everyone (and every animal) who was displaced. I wish I could hug them all and let them know that people around the state, the country, and the world are ready and more than willing to do whatever we can to help.

Generous corporations and OKC’s very own Kevin Durant have shown that with their monetary donations and ongoing support.

I don’t have a million dollars to give. I don’t have a pantry stocked full of enough food for all those who woke up without homes today. I don’t have a closet full of enough clothes for those who only have the ones they fled their homes in.

What I do have is a heart that’s full of hope, a desire to volunteer in any way I can, a brings-tears-to-my-eyes love for my caring and resilient state, and faith that God will see us through.