Storms
Come and Go
“Lead
us from the unreal to the real.”
Hindu
Invocation
I can’t
think of a better invocation for the year 2020. Some days are so surreal as to
be unimaginable. Hurricane Zeta passed through Birmingham last night—the 27th
named storm of this season. My power is off and there are many, many limbs down,
and whole trees on the ground. We are not unaccustomed to storms, even tornados
and hurricanes here, but on top of everything else that 2020 has seen fit to throw
at us, it seems like the final insult. But of course, it’s not. We have an
election next week; one in which we may see armed militia at our polling places
and every possible barricade tossed up to prevent smooth voting. We seem to be
living through the year of Job—boils and all.
I know
in my heart that this too will pass. I still hold out hope that all will be
well, and that good will prevail. “And now abideth faith, hope, charity,
these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” (I Corinthians 13:13) I
still believe this. I hope you do too.
Every
time a storm comes through, I remember a dream I had some twenty-seven years
ago in which I stood at a wide window looking out at a dark ocean. As I watched
an enormous storm approached, moving across the water at a rapid pace. Someone
beside me said, “Don’t worry. There’s a room downstairs that has unbreakable
windows. You’ll be safe there.” It was a beautiful reminder that we always
have the shelter of our inner strength, our Self, that will withstand any storm
life brings us. Not all our storms involve wind and rain, some of them stem
from heartbreak and loss. And still, we are protected if we have done our work,
and claimed that inner repository of strength and wisdom available to each of
us.
Stand
in your strength—in your unbrokenness. We’ll get through 2020 together. What is
now unreal will give way to recognizable reality.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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