All Hell Broke Loose

All hell broke loose and the “shit” hit the fan but despite the difficulties we have grown, lived and loved

Last night I spent some time going through my pictures from 2020 – the year that many of us want to put behind us! We have spent a great deal of our time these last 10 months changing the way we live and work and have our being. It has been a challenge, for sure. Yet when I reflect on the pictures in my Album I do not see despair, or concern or uncertainty. I see laughter, family, adventures. I see much time spent in creation – deep in the woods or by the waters edge. I see pictures of community gathering on lawns and by Zoom. I see resilience, love, and possibilities.

This year, for many, will be remembered as the year that “all hell” broke loose and the “shit” hit the fan. And it certainly was that. But, for me, my pictures reflect another reality as well. They tell me that despite the difficulties we have grown, lived and loved.

And here we are at the beginning of a new year. The slate before us is waiting for a new chapter in our story to be written. I wonder what it will be? And how it will be influenced by where we have been? My hope, my prayer, is that the things we have learned will definitely inform what we will become. I hope and pray that we will not simply return to pre-pandemic normal for there is much that needed to change. May Spirit guide us as we step out again into the unknown and may we go with open hearts and minds, receptive to the possibilities that lie before us.

In her book “Circle of Grace” author Jan Richardson shares a blessing “For those who have Far to Travel”. I leave you with her words

If you could see the journey whole, you might never undertake it, might never dare the first step
that propels you from the place you have known to the place you know not.
Call it one of the mercies of the road: that we see it only by stages as it opens before us
as it comes into our keeping, step by single step.

There is nothing for it but to go, and by our going take the vows the pilgrim takes:
to be faithful to the next step;
to rely on more than the map;
to heed the signposts of intuition and dream;
to follow the star that only you can recognize;
to keep an open for the wonders that attend the path;
to press on beyond distractions, beyond fatigue
beyond what would tempt you from the way.

There are vows that only you will know:
the secret promises for your particular path and the new ones you will need to make
when the road is revealed by turns you could not have foreseen.

Keep them, break them, make them again: each promise becomes part of the path,
each choice creates the road that will take you to the place where at last you will kneel
to offer the gift most needed –
the gift that only you can give –
before turning to go home by another way.

May it be so.

Blessings
Valerie

All Hell Broke Loose

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