I was sitting out on the Zen walkway, sipping a cup of tea with a dear friend. Our sharing naturally included reports of many of those we “hold energy” for: friends and family, folks personally known or those who have come into our hearts and minds via the many-threaded web of our intentionally conscious life.
I mentioned one dear friend, Bernie, having recently been in the hospital with pneumonia—having complications including MRSA. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection is far-too-often contracted in a health-care facility. It is caused by a strain of staph bacteria that’s become resistant to the antibiotics commonly used to treat ordinary staph infections.
Nancy got quiet… then she said, “What is your sense of this challenging time with all this?”
“You mean with antibiotic resistant infections? With all the challenges?” I queried.
“All of it,” Nancy nearly whispered as the hummingbirds zipped around the feeder hanging just a few feet from where we were sitting.
My heart felt soft. Just looking around at those in my immediate sphere of influence could bring tears to your eyes unless you can see the bigger picture. “Was it not just in the 1940’s that antibiotics were first used on humans? We have been in a pattern of fighting against. We know that when you pick up a stick, you pick up both ends…”
Nancy nodded her head, and we sat in silence for a few moments before talking a bit about how each of us can meet challenges with unlimited optimism and faith. Nancy told me earlier that morning she had heard Oprah Winfrey speak of Maya Angelou’s having taught that message to all blessed enough by grace to hear.
This morning I am listening to Maya’s memorial service for myself. Oprah shared a time she had called Maya, hysterically crying about something so devastating at that moment, but the subject of which Oprah cannot even recall now. Maya immediately spoke truth and wisdom that has benefits for each of us today.
Maya’s beautiful words:
Stop it.
Stop it, now!
Stop your crying now.
Stop and say thank you, because whatever it is, you have the faith to know that God has put a rainbow in the clouds, and you’re going to come out on the other side of whatever it is the better for it.
How will we humans navigate the current and coming rough waters of our individual and collective lives?
We can navigate with enough faith to know that God has put a rainbow in the clouds, and we are going to come out on the other side the better for it.
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| Rainbow Flying photo from my dear friend, Dahlis Roy. |
