18/12/2022
May we continue to remember and retell our stories of the day Typhoon Odette ravaged our island, upending our world as it uprooted trees, made barren our forests and fields, and ripped apart structure after structure, tearing apart our greater body, our home, our island.
May we have the wisdom to retell this story over the next year and for decades after that—
To retell the story of the fire storm of grace, the redemptive power of a Mother’s fierce and all but unbearable compassion— for in her appearance, in her burning mercy we remembered how to bow, to the unfathomable mystery and immeasurable magnitude of the unseen that lives in and makes itself known not only in nature, but in one another— the sacred made flesh, walking amongst one another that until then had been mostly unrecognised and unacknowledged.
Amidst overwhelming ruin, tired, hurt, and numb all at the same time, and with all but our breath taken from from us, grasping through the film of delirium that hung above our eyes, we found one another. In the wake of the storm, a community was re-imagined out of the humbling and stark recognition of our interdependence. And it is in the arms of this community, both our immediate and global community, we were able to access the strength, love and clarity, to one day at a time, care for one another and ourselves back to life.
In the coming weeks and months, a community was reborn in the shape of interlocking and concentric circles formed, on and around our island, embracing at its core, the most vulnerable— the young, old, and the least resourced. We were centred around, awake to, and held by the recognition of the One Self/Spirit, weaving through us, the source of our wholeness, from which we drew a strength, compassion, and hope, hitherto unknown to us. (Continued in comments)
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