I'm sure I'm not alone in worrying this morning, as all our friends and family on the East Coast prepare for what one friend referred to as "Frankenstorm." So I thought -- how best to convey my concern? -- and came up with this image, taken during 90 mph winds on Shaw Island a few years back.Because that's the thing: for all the warnings about not going out in a storm -- you still have to walk the dog. It's a bit like being a mother -- especially a single mom: when you get sick, you still have to take care of the kids. Life has a way of going on even when every inch of you wants to crawl in a corner, hide from the storm and/or nurse your wounds.
Which makes me think of that poem again -- Rudyard Kipling's IF: "If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs..."
And so, as the sun glows softly in the trees here on my little island, I promise to sit and breathe, to do Tonglen; to imagine the anxiety and the fear and the wind, and send as much gentle peace and calm in that direction as I can manage; trusting that despite the storms ahead, "this, too, shall pass..."
1 comment:
Our "boys" hate the rain.
The storm has been lashing us for hours now. Very heavy rains and winds cranking up; more than 7,000 in Va. already without power (not sure how long we'll have it; hoping it doesn't go out as it's cold here, too). Flooding significant in some areas. Fortunately, we have no basement. Unfortunately, we have huge trees to our back and front and are praying the great amount of water doesn't cause them to topple. Just have to hope for the best, keep calm and dry, and read a lot.
Do wish my son weren't in Brooklyn.
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