While on our evening walk tonight, the quiet felt just like the quiet of a Sunday afternoon in Baltimore a few decades before the Blue laws were lifted, or in Jonesville South Carolina when we visited my grandmother in the early 1950’s.
I could never figure how to explain that sensation to our kids. Now, they know . . . and will remember themselves the power such quietness has; their kids will, too.
At night, I can open my windows, and hear the silence I heard as a child. What’s different is the pervasiveness of that silence throughout the day. It’s wonderful and scary.
Then I read a question that connected the noisy thoughts in my heart with something useful to do:
Did you ever wonder how you would have acted if you had been caught up in one of these difficult times in history – the American Revolution, the flu of 1918? Do you hope you would have been one of the brave helpful ones? Here’s your chance. (Seattle Wash., writer Christy Karras on the coronavirus pandemic cited in WORLD 04.11.20)
It’s my chance too?
Then let me do it well, even if it is a bit part! For once in my life I can follow directions!
Thank you God for today’s brave, helpful people. They put one foot in front of the other, and do the next thing . . . like showing up: the doctors and nurses, the maintenance crews at hospitals and nursing homes; the garbage men; the police, the first responders; the grocery store staff, the mailmen . . . the truckers and farmers and pharmacists . . . the ministers and counselors . . . the scientists. You have placed a lot of good people doing great things . . .Keep them going, please; keep the troublemakers under wraps, too please.
And, Thank you Lord for tonight’s moon . . .
What’s the Big Deal with the Moon?
Barbara, my grandparents lived in Greenville, about an hour west of Jonesville. One of my favorite memories is of the Quiet there, in the evenings when we all sat together on the front porch and in the calm, purposeful pace of the days. I associate those times with “Be still, and know that I am God.” And I strongly suspect that much of the disorder and deficiencies of our times come from the lack of stillness and quiet in our lives. Perhaps these days will help us rediscover their value. Thank you for the reminder of those special times and of our opportunities during these times.