It's 9:27 and tomorrow it will be 8:27 and dark. The darkness is increasing. Nothing new; it happens every year when Daylight Savings Time ends. So why am I writing about it? Just that I am connecting it this year to the six deaths we've had in our province in the last month.
This morning, Sister Marian Hamwey died. She was with us at Cape May just a few weeks ago. She was really physically ill then, but we had no idea she was going to die. Her breathing was so strange...but she went to all our prayers and liturgies and meals, and talked with everyone during our pre-supper gatherings.I just supposed that her strange breathing was something she knew about and was taking medicine for. But whatever, she was close to death then. We called an ambulance and she went to the local hospital, who helicoptered her to the big hospital in Camden. She seemed to be recovering, but last night she "took a turn for the worst." This was a remarkable woman...a missionary in the Congo for thirty years, and living in our provinces in the US for thirty more years.
Somewhere in my folders I have a photo of her at one of our community meetings about 20 years ago, playing the drums and talking about the Congo. If I find it, I will post it here.
In the meantime,
Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside
you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you.
If you leave it, you may come back again, saying
Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest
knows
Where you are. You must let it find you.
David Wagoner
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