Dickens of a thing

So I had to use a literary quote at some point, my whole brain is riddled with them. At least I haven't stooped to the irrepressible Lord Byron yet.

"The wind is rushing after us, and the clouds are flying after us, and the moon is plunging after us, and the whole wild night is in pursuit of us; but, so far we are pursued by nothing else."

When I first read this I thought it was the most inspiring quote ever. I've never seen language so skillfully handled. It's the closing lines of a chapter from A Tale of Two Cities, one of my all-time favorite books.

I've begun to feel like that a lot recently. In this wierd....hologram. Okay, so the star trek references come out of the woodworks. I can't help that its one of three tv shows I watched as a child! But maybe that doens't make sense to some of you. Here's a better example: a vacuum. not to pick up dirt off floors, but this wierd...clear...nondescript place. And right outside, I am in that scene. The wind is whipping everything, wailing like a hurt child. The moon shine makes everything eerie and blinding in the darkness; clouds roil and boom in anticipation. Looking at it all, I'm crying, I'm terrified. I'm lost and scared and not sure where to go.

But then I blink. Then my eyes focus. and I realize, that I am shuttered away in this place of no harm. In a wierd, glass elevator of sorts. The glass us not breakable. The Savior's wing shields me. In this place that, though the effects of the storm around me are seen, heard, and effective, are not piercing. I was thinking about this before my last post, about how trust and safety are so intertwined. If you trust, you will feel safe, and not feel the need to worry. If you trust, no matter how scary things are, you will remain peaceful. Not in a surreal, serene way, but in a way that we know our foundations will not be moved. That we may be broken, battered, and dismayed, but never pierced. Never shattered. Never left for dead.

It's hard to see past the storm. It's hard to tear your eyes away from the raging sea, the crashing mountains, the inky black clouds and the whirlwind inches away. You can't ignore it. Nor can you fight it. But you can hold tight. You can trust. You can not only feel safe, but be safe.

The only thing I can think of right now is Hannah's song. Its long and gangly in the English translation, but I can just imagine her sitting in the temple, on her knees, singing, as she gave up the only thing she had been waiting her whole life for. May I be that peaceful in my times of worry and woe. May I have my foundations so secure that I sing when in pain and look through the storm to the arms holding me.