“this blessing joins you in the dark
to remind you that you are not alone
this blessing clings to you
loves you
believes in you
and calls you forward”

“I take a deep breath trying to remember where I was a year ago – who I was a year ago. Inside, I see the orange card with my handwriting: to stop fighting rest and embrace its renewing qualities.”

“Do we fall into anxiety and anger, hoarding, pushing others away, and trying for a security that is ephemeral?  Or do we respond with compassion, as Jesus would have us do, lamenting the entrenched evil that threatens the cities we love?  (O, Moscow, how I long to gather you. . .)  And reaching out in compassion to those who are hurting?”

We’re only in the first full week of Lent, but I’m already wondering when the downward rush will end and how it will all turn out. I know I’m not the only one praying for peace and safety and for a sign that the bottom of the hill will not be a total crash. Other things are going on in the world we need to keep in our awareness, and people around us who have needs we can supply or bring to the attention of those who can help if we are unable.

As in this morning’s psalm, humility before the power of creation is an idea that is profoundly expressed by Hokusai’s vision—and it is one that we particularly struggle with, believing as many of us do that creation has been placed into our hands to be disposed of as we wish. Yet the human power to destroy is nothing next to the power of creation.