“Holed Up for a Year, I Hope…”

Holy Week blog post from Bishop Susan Goff

The beach after a storm is a place of wonders.  With a mixture of anticipation and trepidation, I get up before dawn on the morning after a storm in order to be outside as the sun rises.  I find

            A tree trunk lying askew, as if casually tossed by a giant hand

            Deep gullies and rivulets carved out in places they hadn’t been the day before  

            The sand stripped away in some spots and piled high in others

            Shredded beach umbrellas and bent beach chairs strewn every which way  

            Buoys and boogie boards, broken pails and toy shovels in myriad colors

            Piles of shells, oh the shells, including a complete conch.

Amid the wreckage and the surprises, life goes on.  

            Sandpipers continue their dance at the edge of the breakers

            Gulls cry overhead

            Pelicans dive and dolphins swim.  

Life goes on, changed and ever new.  

Holed up for a year, I hope to live with eyes wide open 

            to see the ways the pandemic has changed the landscape

            to lament what has been lost and broken

            to discover the surprising wonders.  

I hope to recognize how life goes on without demanding that it be the way it was before.  

I hope to find 

            beauty in the wreckage

            life amid the loss 

            color in the brokenness.  

I hope for courage for us who are part of the life that goes on in a changed and changing world.  

P.S. Click here to check out other posts in this series!

Spirituality The Episcopal Church Clergy Holed Up for a Year: I Hope... Holy Week Poetry The Rt. Reverend Susan Goff