I love to pause at the ponds and stop for a while, talking while watching the ducks and the geese. These graceful creatures who seem to be floating along, seemingly effortlessly. Of course they are not, all the work is going on beneath the service and yet they appear totally calm. There is one creature that always floats along alone, he seems to bully the mallards, they don’t get too close. He is a type of a duck I would guess, but he is much bigger than the mallards, more the size of the Canada geese. He has the head and plumage of a male mallard and yet some of the colouring of the geese. My imagination plays tricks with me at times and wonder if he is mixture of the two. I often joke with the folk I stand with about this.
We are currently in storm season, Eunice and Dudley this week. By giving them names, they sound friendly, which of course they are not. Such weather often leads to much devastation. It has in the south of England and Wales this week, not such mere here in Cheshire. There are other storms brewing too. Troubles in eastern Europe and of course a looming economic crises, fears about the rising cost of living and how folk will cope. There are other more personal storms too. My phone hasn’t stopped all week, so many folk struggling and suffering with one thing and another. I have met with many people this, week. I have listened and shared with so many. It would so easy to have become overwhelmed by it all, to think this is too much. Each demand was completely unaware of the next. So I have continued to paus, to centre down, to connect to that place of stillness and calm and continue to do what I am able to do, one thing after another. Now don’t get me wrong I haven’t been as graceful as a swan, a duck will do for me. I have kept on returning to that calm, to the still small voice, deep within me, within everything, it has enabled me to face most of what has needed to be faced. It has done so for many years now, but it does take effort and like the ducks it doesn’t mean I don’t flap about from time to time and I do duck under too, but never for long. At the end of each day I spend a little time quietly reflecting, tying up the loose ends and then sleep. I have been sleeping deeply all week, I have not been awoken by the storms outside my window. I begin again the next day with my consideration of the little things I have witnessed the day before. None of this stops the storms, nor does it protect me from the damage that will inevitably be wrought. That said it does keep me safe and enables me to repair the damage that is done. It also enables me to journey with others as they sometimes become overwhelmed by the storms of life. Several times this week I have driven with friends to one place or another, talking but mainly listening to either their troubles or the troubles of those in their lives. I have walked and talked with others, several have called round and I have visited folks in their homes and the hospital. We have faced the storms together, side by side. It has felt, at times, like we have got in the boat together and faced the storms of life. Not rescuing one another, but actually sailing through the storm together, side by side.
Storm seasons brings to mind a favourite story. It is an extract from a book titled “Have a Little Faith” by Mitch Albom. The book is set over an 8 year period and explores the lives of two seemingly ordinary, but actually extraordinary men. One is the authors childhood Rabbi Albert Lewis and the other is a former drug addict criminal Henry Covington who spends his time serving a community of homeless people and addicts in a run down former town church. Both characters describe coming through many struggles and storms and doing so with grace and love, and by the power of service, whilst accompanying others through the storms of life. It describes the power of living by just a little faith, what a difference that makes. These are lives full of questions, struggles and doubts, but yet a faith to live by. The following extract is from a sermon delivered by the Rabbi:
“A man seeks employment on a farm. He hands his letter of recommendation to his new employer. It reads simply, `He sleeps in a storm.’
The owner is desperate for help, so he hires the man.
Several week pass, and suddenly, in the middle of the night, a powerful storm rips through the valley.
Awakened by the swirling rain and howling wind, the owner leaps out of bed. He calls for his new hired hand, but the man is sleeping soundly.
So he dashes off to the barn. He sees, to his amazement, that the animals are secure with plenty of feed. He runs out to the field. He sees the bales of wheat have been bound and are wrapped in tarpaulins. He races to the silo. The doors are latched, and the grain is dry.
And then he understands.
`He sleeps in a storm.’
My friends, if we tend to the things that are important in life, if we are right with those we love and behave in line with our (beliefs), our lives will not be cursed with the aching throb of unfulfilled business. Our words will always be sincere, our embraces will be tight. We will never wallow in the agony of `I could have, I should have.’ We can sleep in a storm.
And when it’s time, our good-byes will be complete.”
Wonderful isn’t it…
We cannot stop the storms from striking, whether this be the stormy weather, or the troubles caused externally to us, by forces way beyond our control, or the ones that strike close at hand, or the ones that grow from deep inside our own being. That said there is much we can do about how we are during these storms, how we live within them and how we accompany one another through them. We don’t sail this ship alone. One thing is for sure is that none of us have to face the storms alone. We don’t need any special power to do so, just the ordinary human kind will do, but we do need to be prepared and this is where spiritual practices come. A calm mind and a still heart are the key. It is said that Gandhi loved storms. He began life as a timid child, but he learned to keep his mind so steady that he could face tremendous crises with courage, compassion, wisdom, and even a sense of humour. A sense of humour is vital in helping us through such storms, remember to be in good humour originally meant to be in good health. We have the capacity to deal with what ever challenges life throws at us, but we do need a calm mind and still heart to draw on the resources deep within us. We also need to accompany one another, to encourage each other when it feels too much.
When I consider Jesus’ attempts to teach his disciples I often think that this is where his frustrations came from. I know that this is perhaps an unorthodox view, but I think that this is what he was trying to teach those that followed him, to find that power, that still small voice within. It is certainly something he did as he took time alone, to commune with God. In Mark ch 4 during a passage titled “The Calming of the Storm”. Jesus rebukes the frightened disciples who have woken him “Have you know faith” he is doing so because he knows that they can calm the storm, they just do not have the faith in themselves to do so. He shows them the way. They had after all come through such storms before, this was very common on the Sea of Galilee, where storms would rise up from nowhere. Unfortunately, though they just became enthralled by his ability to calm the sea, rather that having enough faith to come through it themselves. Not alone, but together, side by side in their boat.
When the storms strike we do not have to face them alone, although it is our responsibility to play our role fully. Our responsibility is to support one another in the storms of life. There is a real power in being together, so long as it does not lead to unhealthy dependency. It is important that we get in the boat together at times, side by side, not so much to rescue each other, just to be there when the wind is really blowing and life seems too much.
We do not need to fear the storms that will come in life. We cannot stop them and when they come we cannot avoid them. That said we do not have to be destroyed by them. We have all that we need to come through within each and everyone of us. It is vital that we take care of this and bring it to life. It is equally as important to stand side by side with each other as we face the storms together. Not so much to rescue each other, but to from time to time journey in the boat together, to help each other to face the storms of life.
The storms will strengthen us as we move forward in life and we will be able to encourage one another when we are afraid to face the storm as it is brewing, as everyone loses the faith that they can weather another storm, from time to time.
Have a little faith.
I am going to end this devotion with another story. It is taken from “Rites of Justice: The Sacraments and Liturgy as Ethical Imperatives” by Megan McKenna
"Once upon a time there was a master violin maker. His instruments were exquisite, and the sound that could be drawn forth from them was beyond description. He only accepted a small number of apprentices, and he took them through the long and arduous process of making a violin from the choice of the tree to how to string the piece at the very end, after the varnish. There was one apprentice, an especially adept one, who had trouble with only one aspect of the process: the choice of wood. He had mastered all the other levels but would balk at the choice of which tree to mark and cut to form the base of the violin. Finally the master took him out to the forest again.
"It was the dead of winter, a frightfully cold and windy day, with snow swirling and ice thickly hung in all the trees. They walked north and the master starting marking out the trees.
" 'Why?' the apprentice queried. 'Why these?'
"The master answered, 'They face due north and they take the brunt of the wind, the chill, and the ice. They make the best violins.'
"They returned. The storm grew stronger, and the student asked his teacher, 'Master, doesn't it bother you to think about the trees that you marked standing alone in the wind, standing against all this ice and fury? Have you no pity for them?'
"The master eyed him and smiled, 'No, not at all. You see, they are being tuned!' "
Maybe that’s what happens to us as we come through another storm, maybe we become better tuned so that we can encourage one another, when the storms strike and it all seems too much. We can get in each others boats and encourage one another to keep on sailing through the storm.
Remember Gandhi loved storms, for he believed that the trials and tribulations brought out the best in him. They often do with us, that is if we have taken care of what we can, for they enable us to become more loving and sensitive to the needs of others, thus we will understand when we need to accompany others, journey side by side with them and encourage them to face whatever storms come their ways. Also, when the time comes, when we lose faith in our ability to face the next storm, that we will be equipped to allow others to get in the boat and journey with us too.
Through all the tumult and the strife, I hear the music ringing: It sounds and echo in my soul – How can I keep from singing!
below is a video devotion based
on the material in this "blogspot"
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