The images are heartbreaking. They become almost unbearable to view especially when they are places that are not only familiar but special…
Asheville and the surrounding area has been a home for me for over four decades. The people, mountains, culture, cuisine have been a container that has nurtured and transformed my heart and soul…
It is as theologian Peter Gomes describes, “There is in Celtic mythology the notion of ‘thin places’ in the universe where the visible and the invisible world come into their closest proximity. To seek such places is the vocation of the wise and the good and for those that find them, the clearest communication between the temporal and eternal. Mountains and rivers are particularly favored as thin places marking invariably as they do the horizontal and perpendicular frontiers. But perhaps the ultimate of these thin places in the human condition are the experiences people are likely to have as they encounter suffering, joy, and mystery.”
The Blue Ridge Mountains and specifically Kanuga Camp and Conference Center is a thin place. I have been blessed beyond measure to walk with multiple generations of folks both literally and spiritually through this majestic holy landscape…
Death and destruction by nature and or humanity has been a part of reality from the beginning of time. Many among us have had to endure an unconscionable amount of both. And those who have suffered significantly are often the first to help when others are in the grip of despair in the aftermath. Those who have lost much also often know how best to bring faith, hope and love…
And it is that faith, hope and love each of us is called to bring as we can to those who suffer as author Ann Lamott offers, “Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up.”
Show me where love and hope and faith are needed,
and use me to bring them to these places.
Open my eyes and ears that I may, this coming day,
be able to do some work of peace for thee. Amen. Alan Paton – Instruments of Thy Peace
BP