To all who have been devastated by the flood: I have no idea how, having lost home, or community, or town, you begin to stitch things back together, weave it in to your changed reality. The many losses, now just becoming apparent and sinking in, are seemingly overwhelming. And still, there are so many bravely working. And hopefully in time, because of this—one step, then another—the looming paralysis will lift, and balance and beauty return.
Your grief for what you’ve lost lifts a mirror
up to where you’re bravely working.
Expecting the worst, you look, and instead,
here’s the joyful face you’ve been wanting to see.
Your hand opens and closes and opens and closes.
If it were always fist or always stretched open, you would be paralyzed.
Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding.
The two as beautifully balanced and coordinated
as bird wings. –Rumi
Life is, on the one hand, a collection of losses….
Stephen, I only caught tidbits of news while unplugged in Alaska over the past two weeks. I heard of flooding in Calgary (and Anchorage-for different reasons). I hope the torrents have slowed and that recover has begun.
I am jotting down thoughts of my mixed-bag of emotions spawned by the landscapes of Alaska and the obvious impacts of climate change at the higher latitudes. A silent threat, obvious yet undiscussed.
Recovery that is…
True Sam.
Thanks Diane, the long road to recovery has begun. I read about the heatwave in Alaska the day after the flood in Calgary. Yes, these are the days of an excited and agitated hydrological cycle. Undiscussed.