" For, truly, in the remembrance of God, hearts find rest." (Surah-ar-Ra'd 13:28)
We had anticipated staying in Canada until October 1st. We had anticipated attending our nephew's wedding in Columbus, Ohio last weekend, and then enjoying our last two weeks in Qualicum Beach before packing up, saying good-bye to friends, and flying home. Then life happened, unanticipated events arose, and here we are in Covington, having missed the wedding and rushed the good-byes. Michael was already back in Louisiana, so I had the bitter-sweet job of closing up our home and making last minute visits. Although my mother assures me that 'everything is grace,' I did not feel 'ease and lightness,' and was certainly resistant to this change in the plan.
Everywhere I went, I heard the same thing: "Where did the summer go?" There were so many plans at the beginning of the season, so many expectations of hikes, trips, dinners and connections. Time seemed to stretch out from June all the way until October, and all things were possible. Suddenly, it was over, and I was getting on the little 6-passenger airplane to fly to Vancouver for the flights home.
It unnerves me to fly like this, and at the same time fills me with awe and joy. As the tiny plane flew East, a shroud of dark clouds chased us, slowly swallowing the Island, and the bright summer days. Now there was only water below, and towards the mainland, pools of sunlight reflected on the ocean beneath the breaking grey strata above us. We were flying between airy wisps of clouds, and I watched the freighters and ferries working the shipping lanes below. I couldn't resist this looking out and down, which both terrifies and opens me to total wonder at the pure unadulterated magnificence of life. The horizon was filled with snow-capped peaks, the ocean was sprinkled with dark green forested islands, my eyes were filled with tears and the engines hummed along. "For happiness one needs security," Anne Morrow Lindbergh wrote, "but joy can spring like a flower even from the cliffs of despair."
Periodically over the summer, as Michael and I would sit by the water in the evenings, he would comment on how blessed we were to live in this beautiful place. Life in all its beauty and joy becomes more precious, I think, as we get older. We have a friend who, last year anticipated his future, and saw its limits, that he would only have x-number of years to return to the Island, x-number of years to own a boat, etc. He was matter-of-fact about this and, of course, it was great speculation. We have neighbors, though, who are well-passed his 'limits' and going strong. Two of our most elderly neighbors still walk hand-in-hand each morning, slowly, hesitatingly, with enormous smiles on faces that are an open-invitation to share their joy in just being, I think they realize the gift of not so much seeing how little time they have, as in the preciousness of this day, this morning, this greeting. Or perhaps they appreciate it all because they do see how little time we have for kindness and loving and joy.
"And joy is everywhere;" the poet Ragindranath Tagore reminds us, "It's in the Earth's green covering of grass; In the blue serenity of the Sky." It was in the deer who seemed to be saying their farewells in Rathtrevor that last rainy morning when the ocean, as one full body, breathed in rolling swells beneath a grey/green sky. It was in the busy-ness of the starlings and herons, fussing on the shoreline in the tidal pools under a relentless drizzle. It was in the hugs and well-wishes from friends, and in the memories of such a lovely summer. And it was in the view from the jet as we gained altitude out of Vancouver, the mainland mountains receding, the beauty of the Columbia River and other smaller rivers cutting their way to the Pacific through gorges of steep dark green.
Such is the beauty, the generosity, the giftedness of life that, regardless of what unfolds around us, we have the option of remembering Where the heart finds rest. Once again, it's been a joy to share the summer in these Sagas. I pray for each of you that state of grace, of ease, of lightness that comes in knowing that the Divine is unfolding, that 'everything is grace,' and that All Is Well.
YAY GOD
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