Correspondence

Friday 22nd January, 2021

A glorious sunny day. A great walk with the grabber.

Also news that President Trump is to be tried....I am not sure of the details. I am not sure of my reaction.

More news re lockdown and virus infections and hospitalisations. Also I heard of friends younger than me having had their vaccinations so things are progressing in some places. Again I am not sure what I think of it all.

I simply want to include a reply I sent to an email I received from a dear friend. The reply comes before the original email. I will add no more. I simply know that my reply is to myself also.

The reply:

It is indeed hard. It is a way into the need for God and his Creation and an appreciation of it. It is a way in to sharing suffering of others. It is a way in to one's true self, a way to face what is and to dwell in the now and trust God's grace in one self to be able not only to cope but to grow. It is a way to help carry the cross. It is going in to hell with God to bring others out. It is an identity......and others have been there and are there, St. John of the Cross etc, and they walk with you, they descend in to the pit of darkness with you and that darkness is, one will learn, the blinding light of God which one cannot take. Walk, read, pray, dream, listen to all sorts and then be still and quiet and just hang in there.

The initial email:

I’ve been thinking about you with all this awful weather, and hoping you are all right. I’m sort of ok. I came back from D's much refreshed and re-charged, and realising that the symptoms I had been having were to do with anxiety related to isolation. Determined not to let that happen again, but it’s hard not being able to have someone in, even for coffee. I have been walking with various friends, on the beach and down the marshes, when the weather lets us. Never mind – vaccinations on the way, we hope! Keep well My friend's husband died about six months ago. I thought of Amanda Gorman's lines which I quoted yesterday:

"That even as we grieved, we grew That even as we hurt, we hoped That even as we tired, we tried" It is not easy but there are examples of growing through suffering, of endurance leading to enlightenment, of loneliness leading to awareness of Grace. It is accepting. I go back to Carretto and to all, not just theists, I would say for them "to trust, to believe, to hope and to accept". Exemplars everywhere from the ordinary man and woman to the most talented and privileged. Does not Biden have the busts of Parks and Chavez in the Oval Office? What inspirations. So let us look to strength from those we love, admire and emulate.