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SEA
CHANGE
© 2005 Denise Roy
That was
the time
when wind and water
roared down from the sky
and over the lake
and up from the sea.
We watched
with mouths open.
We grieved
in disbelief.
We saw the
little, the old,
the poor, the black;
we watched as the waters
exposed years of neglect,
we watched
as the powerless
were left behind.
And something
stirred within us,
a shame perhaps, a recognition
of something that we should have known.
But we also
watched as the waters
brought in the ones
who rolled up their sleeves,
and put on the hands of God.
We watched all those who stayed to help:
those in uniforms
and those in boats,
doctors and nurses,
fathers and mothers,
the ones who embodied the promise:
I will not forsake you
I will not abandon you.
That was
the time
when wind and water
washed over our souls,
when we saw in the distance
a way opening up,
Red Sea-like,
where the best of our nature
might come through.
In that
time,
money and homes and prayers
poured out as offerings,
and a promise was made:
a willingness to see,
a pledge to stay,
a commitment to justice,
a joining in the holy promise:
I will not abandon you.
That was
the time
when we began to remember
this is who we really are:
We are lovers
with loaves and fishes.
We don't leave
the least
or the little ones
behind.
We will
tell our children
and grandchildren
of the days
when we forgot,
and we will warn them
of what comes from forgetting,
and of what comes from believing that other story—
the one about there not being enough to go around,
the one in which some are not worthy
of time or attention or support.
We will
tell the future ones
of that time
when wind and water
woke us up,
when a path was cleared
in our collective soul,
when we marched through
in exodus from the old story
and into the promise
of a new one.
We will
tell them that
that was the time—
that this is the time—
to create a world
that works
for everyone,
the time
to roll up our sleeves,
and put on the hands
of God.
©2005
Denise Roy
All rights reserved.
http://www.familyspirit.com
Denise Roy is the author
of "My Monastery Is a Minivan" (Loyola, 2001) and the founder of FamilySpirit.com. She
is a writer, psychotherapist, and mother of four (ages 9-24). She lives with
her family in the San Francisco Bay area.
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