Hurricane, by Mary Oliver
It didn't behave
like anything you had
ever imagined. The wind
tore at the trees, the rain
fell for days slant and hard.
The back of the hand
to everything. I watched
the trees bow and their leaves fall
and crawl back into the earth.
As though, that was that.
This was one hurricane
I lived through, the other one
was of a different sort, and
lasted longer. Then
I felt my own leaves giving up and
falling. The back of the hand to
everything. But listen now to what happened
to the actual trees;
toward the end of that summer they
pushed new leaves from their stubbed limbs.
It was the wrong season, yes,
but they couldn't stop. They
looked like telephone poles and didn't
care. And after the leaves came
blossoms. For some things
there are no wrong seasons.
Which is what I dream of for me.
I know. I know. I am repeating a poet, but this poem, titled "Hurricane" by Mary Oliver seemed fitting for today. Macon has been hit by a hurricane strength storm perhaps only twice in the last 30 years. It seems likely that we will add another to our tally tonight. In Mary Oliver's poem she sees the trees being slapped around by the wind, shrinking back into themselves and the Earth. These storms that are so easy to watch approach and still catch us off guard occur in our lives as well, shaking what we though secure and causing hope to retreat. Our lives are not so different from the wider patterns of the world. Perhaps as you watch WMAZ Impact Weather Alerts come through today, you know too well the impacts of other storms blowing through and eroding the life you expected: financial strain, medical emergencies, loss of a dream, of mobility or a loved one. In creation we see the devastation of raw power unleashed, but so too, if we watch carefully, we can see the resilience of life to start again. I pray for your safety tonight, but more than simple safety, I pray that you find the resilience of trees and the stubborn hope of the earth to find life again in devastated places. May we all remember that resurrection only happens where there are graves.
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