Message From the Minister
Hurricane
It didn’t behave
like anything you had
ever imagined. The wind
tore at the trees, the rain
fell for days slant and hard.
The back of the hand
to everything. I watched
the trees bow and their leaves fall
and crawl back into the earth.
As though, that was that.
This was one hurricane
I lived through, the other one
was of a different sort, and
lasted longer. Then
I felt my own leaves giving up and
falling. The back of the hand to
everything. But listen now to what happened
to the actual trees;
toward the end of that summer they
pushed new leaves from their stubbed limbs.
It was the wrong season, yes,
but they couldn’t stop. They
looked like telephone poles and didn’t
care. And after the leaves came
blossoms. For some things
there are no wrong seasons.
Which is what I dream of for me.
~ Mary Oliver
Today marks an anniversary for so many of us. We have been living for an entire year with this hurricane of a different sort: a global storm that has flattened out, hollowed out, and wrecked so many of the patterns and rhythms that defined our lives before Covid-19.
You may be feeling this anniversary in some vague way in a part of your body: a pain in the stomach, a fluttery feeling in your chest, or an ache between your shoulder blades. Or you may feel a kind of brain fog that keeps your thoughts from gelling together as they normally would. Or you may be feeling snappish, or tearful, or strangely out of tune with the warm and sunny weather.
All of these responses are normal. What we have all been through is a year-long experience of fear, grief, and loss. And this experience is not finished with us yet. But we can take a moment to mark this time, respectfully and mindfully bearing witness to all that we have shared, and all the we have lost. How will you mark this year in your history? Are there rituals that can help you honor your experiences?
I hope you'll take extra gentle, loving care of yourself and your loved ones. You and they have been through so much. Please know that I am holding all of you in my heart, with thoughts of healing and the renewal of hope that comes in the spring.
Regeneration will come in its own season, and we may go through a spiky time of looking, feeling, and being out of tune with the rhythms of our lives. But know that when the storm winds down, we will put out new leaves and new blossoms. This is what I dream of, for you, for me, and for the whole human family.
May you be well, may you be safe ~ Kristina
