Sunday Morning Serenity

“What’s today?” There’s no telling how many times I’ve asked Dave that question in the past year. I never realized, until now, how much we depend on markers—large and small—in everyday life.

For me, each week has always begun with Monday-back-to-work and ended with Sundays at church. Seasons were marked by Easter services, Mother’s Day corsages and would-anybody-like-to-say-a-few-words-about-your-father on Father’s Day, summertime trips to the coast, football and harvest season, a family Thanksgiving, and Christmas services and get-togethers. (I generally sleep through the ball drop on New Year’s Eve, and Mama has never been able to persuade me that the traditional New Year’s Day meal, which includes turnip greens at her table, is delicious. I’m good with the cornbread and black-eyed peas, but beyond that . . .)

It’s the seamlessness of the past year that has been so strange to me. (Well—that’s one of many things, but it’s the most consistent and persistent.) There were no mile markers—just a long highway leading to some point way off in the distance.

Tomorrow, Dave and I are scheduled for our first vaccines. Mile Marker 1. Make that 2. I think Marker 1 was helping my parents and other at-risk relatives get vaccines, which brought a kind of relief I can’t even describe. We still “have a ways to go.” (Not “way” but “ways”—anybody else grow up saying it that way?) But for the first time in a long time, I feel like we’ll get there.

And as we saw in the aftermath of a recent tornado outbreak, community isn’t necessarily defined by proximity. I saw all kinds of outreach happening on social media—and on the telephone—as friends and neighbors miles apart checked on each other and offered help—everything from prayer and support to physical shelter and chainsaws to clear debris. The worst can bring out our best. That’s something we’ve held onto as we’ve traveled this long highway.

“’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far
and grace will lead me home.”

Comments

[Betty Lee]

You said it perfect. Very trying times. Grace will lead me home