Yesterday, at the point when I'd had enough news and political commentary to last me a lifetime, I decided to unwind with a walk in the woods.
We are on the cusp of spring here in central Pennsylvania. It is cold and windy one day, warm and sunny the next, gloomy and wet the next. But, yesterday was a beautiful day, despite the cruelty and injustice that are suffocating our country right now. Despite the blows to our retirement savings and Social Security accounts. The jobs that have been lost. The looming threats to health care in this country. The violation of our basic human and constitutional rights. Despite all of it, Mother Nature managed to pull off a perfect Spring day, as if to say, "There, there. It will be all right."
This is the thing:
The sky was as blue as it has ever been. The sun was warm, and the winds had quieted to little more than a whisper. The cherry blossoms and forsythia were a profusion of color. The forest floor was blanketed with green. The birds were silent, as if lost in thought. The music I enjoyed was just as glorious as it had been the day before, and the day before that...and for years before that.
None of that has changed, even though it seems like almost everything else has.
The point is that, even as the world bows down before the evil forces of greed, cruelty, violence, injustice, and hatred, its foundation remains unshaken. The animals have come out of hiding. Mother Nature has kept her word. Beauty lives on. Kindness and compassion flourish. Wisdom abounds.
To that point, as I was walking along one of the isolated back roads nearby, a man on a motorcycle pulled up in front of me, dismounted, and began walking my way. I have to admit, it scared me a bit. But, it turned out that he had mistaken me for a neighbor he had frequently passed there, until the day she got sick. He hadn't seen her out for weeks.
When he realized his mistake, he apologized. And then he said simply, "Do you pray?"
I replied, "In my own way," and he asked me to pray for his neighbor.
Which is how I think we're going to get through this: each of us in our own way.
This was an unlikely chance encounter that served to remind me that we are on secure footing. That people are concerned and caring. That simple pleasures surround us if we turn our attention to them. That we have the power to silence the voices of evil if we will listen, instead, to the sound of the wind and rain. If we appreciate laughter and good music. If we share words of friendship, support, respect, and kindness. Each of us in our own way.
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