Never Give Up

Courage is not having the strength to go on; it is going on when you don’t have the strength. –Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), 26th President of the United States A year of heartbreak, soundless as the stars who glitter, surreal, remembering while we make our wishes, feel the darkness surrounding, gentling at best… the beautiful kiss of a lonely death, fatalities sitting in heaven, never listening to the falling rain, all the clouds, the edges of each shadow, forbidding my heart this feeling, so insane… hurricane helene, with her deafening embrace left hearts without the rhythm of hope that quiets the soul, when the thunder leaves its witness to the darkness’ demonic twist, the unending silence from a storm, the risk imagine a world standing still, awkward without her joyful voice, darkened by fears, tears, and despair, all the dismay that comes to those who witness the heavens pouring out not only the flow of rain, but the waters so explosive they are truly a hurricane – hurricane Helene writing her story on our land, fighting the mountains, filling lives with her shouts, seeking to break us, with her screams and her roar, as she raises our waters, our creeks and our rivers, brings mudslides that change us forever… oh, what a story she’ll write in her journal about the day she touched down on this quiet, quaint home – Western North Carolina no, we’ll never be the same… there will always be a hesitation when the rain begins, an anxious foreboding, apprehension of what might become another Helene, another hurricane, another rain who silences every soul with the breath of a tempest so out of control…. oh, my, what a tale these mountains could expose, a story of darkness, a story of dread, a story of fear that is filled with regrets… how we will remember Helene I believe… is the storm who reminded we must always seek the One who created us to believe, without His protection, we’re a people without any peace, we’re a people without hope or grace, we’re a people who life will replace, with death, darkness, disgrace, all the reasons that storms rage, all the reasons that we have to abide… in the love of the Father, the hope of the light, the peace of God’s Son, who will heal those of us, who’ve been touched by the storm who taught us… we must never give up!