Tuesday, March 15, 2011

quiet


We get quiet when others cry, Mary Little Cross whispered decades ago. It's like lighting candles on an altar; it's the way we send our prayers. The Bear Don't Walk  kids were boarding our school bus a few days after their mother had died while painting the ceiling in their kitchen.  

I feel quiet. In the wake of Japan's disasters, everything I have to say is small.

**
I wondered if Hewhofliesplanes would be flying rescue in Japan the way he did in Indonesia a few years ago. In the middle of wondering, my cell phone rang. He was calling to say he was involved in a different mission and so he'd not be in Japan.

Where would they, how would they find the courage they will need to recover? How would any of us? Whenever Plane-flyer and I visit the subject of courage comes up. Mostly we were quiet, but then he shared this quote with me:

"Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace. The soul that knows it not, knows no release from little things; Knows not the livid loneliness of fear."  -Amelia Earhart



Photo courtesy of Nadine Hergenrider.

7 comments:

  1. That was beautiful, Sherry ... I needed that.

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  2. We are all insignificant. I also find whatever I could possibly say irrelevant. At the same time, I hope the worst is not ahead of us.

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  3. Big things can make you feel so small. Lovely quote from Amelia. Thanks.

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  4. The Japanese are a strong nation. If it's not an earthquake and Tsunami, it's a bomb that was dropped to end a war many years ago. If it isn't Man, it's Nature. And yet, there seems to be no anger, no blame. They are resilient people that are facing another tragedy with grace and fortitude....
    A lesson to us all.

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  5. Silence is the comfortable place, more so now than usual. A strength-filled quote, touchstone material. Thank you.

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