The Setting: May, Moonlight and Magnolias
It was a walk in late May, filled with bright moonlight and magnolias .No phone photos memorialized the walk; they should have! How do I capture that on a cell phone?
There is a sweetness of May verging on June that no other time in the whole year can equal. And by sweetness is meant more than flower fragrance or honey taste; this is the greater sweetness of understanding and emotion, the glow of pleasure in being. ~Hal Borland
This May has been a time of emerging from a few more constraints that COVID imposed, creating almost as much anxiety as I felt early on! (Practice Social Distancing) Who knew re-engaging with familiar old routines would generate as much nervousness as the initial days of quarantining!
COVID-19 sure taught me to redefine what an adventure is. Picking up groceries, taking a walk, getting carryout– high times they now seem to be!
The Lesson(s)
The pandemic, etc, is still teaching many lessons, enlarging my understanding of gratitude, expanding my definitions of gifts, but confusing me.
It confused me how far we can draw apart in times that should be uniting us. The pandemic confused me about many more things, like when magnolia bloomed! (They Don’t Bloom in August)
Still, the lasting lesson remains: Simple pleasures feel quite grand when framed by grief.
No, we lost no one to COVID, although some friends had a right rough spell in its grip. Hey, we all had some rough spells in its grip, even if we dodged the virus– like isolation, separations, fear . . . (A New Set of Lessons)
That’s why the walk was so . . . delightful. The sheer pleasure of walking — of walking in the moonlight with best boyfriend — enjoying the scent of magnolias on one of the last evenings in May — it reminded me of God’s grip.
Friends often sign their notes, In His Grip, a reminder of in whom they hope. Sometimes, I so resist that.
Last night, though, in the moonlight and magnolias, on a lovely May evening, His grip has never felt so gentle and secure.
For I hold you by your right hand–
I, the Lord your God.
And I say to you.
‘Don’t be afraid. I am here to help you.(Isaiah 41:13)
No moonlight; no magnolias, but maybe May in Maryland?