In response to the tornadoes in Alabama, facilitator and master teacher Kay Mutert responded to a note from a facilitator in Japan who was thanking us for the GHR we implemented for the earthquake just a few months earlier. Kay then wrote the prayer that follows and we included it in the GHR Q2 for 2011.
Dearest Mitsuyo Takeda,
I write to you from Tuscaloosa Alabama, where we were just hit by devastating tornadoes When asked if I thought the GHR should focus on the tornadoes of the Southeast USA, I wondered, knowing that our devastation is so much less than that of your beautiful land and people. We only have a few hundred who are not accounted for. Our nuclear plant in AL fortunately cut off, with no residual effect. I cannot imagine your continued loss and emptiness.
Yet, your email reminds us, loss touches all. Loss of life is loss of life. We are, as Thomas Berry said, a communion of subjects….. we are joined together in life, in story.
I so appreciate your tradition of forty-nine days. I shall invite others to honor that time passage here, for the losses in these communities. In our culture, persons who die are often quickly buried and life moves on. Yet, how does it. We too, in our communities, will take a long time to recover from this natural disaster.
May we continue not to forget… not to forget the disasters of recent years and places, not to forget the tragedy of your tsunami, not to forget the present ache of our Southeast USA states. May we hold each other in love and care.
And may we continue to hold hope and thankfulness, for a community of persons who care across the world thru the circle of the labyrinth, for those who bodily, financially and spiritually respond to the needs of others, for the promise of a new dawn, even when the night seems endless.
I thank you for your email, and for calling us all to remembrance. May we acknowledge both the powerful hand of nature and the promise-filled possibility of humanity.
Some of us will soon gather in Chartres, one week being on the transitions of life. We who are there will offer prayer and thought to the unchosen transitions of our communities and your world.
Our love and thoughts are with you and your nation,
Kay Mutert
Tuscaloosa AL USA
Not long after writing that note, Kay wrote this…..
Once again natural disaster has hit, as tornadoes twisted, turned and charged on, creating havoc and destruction across the Southeast of the United States.
Even as these communities strive to move out from under the rubble,the uncertain recovery of Japan continues. And our hearts are not far removed from past events around the world that still leave their mark, places and persons still scarred and broken, continued loss and emptiness.
We who are able, offer this prayer and thought to the un-chosen transitions of our communities and world.
PRAYER FOR COMPASSION
We know any loss touches all.
Loss of life is loss of life.
We are, as Thomas Berry said, a communion of subjects.
We are joined together in life, in story.
In the traditions of ancient wisdom and spirit,
may we both uphold the people and places lost and hurt
by this recent epidemic of storm destruction
and remember the losses in these other communities around the world,
those now a part of our past news.
May we continue not to forget…
not to forget the disasters of recent years and places,
not to forget the tragedy of Japan,
not to forget the present ache of the Southeast states.
May we hold each other in love and care.
And may we continue to hold hope and thankfulness—
for a community of persons who care across the world through the circle of the labyrinth,
for those who bodily, financially and spiritually respond to the needs of others,
for the promise of a new dawn, even when the night seems endless.
May the labyrinth call us all to remembrance.
May we acknowledge both the powerful hand of nature and
the promise-filled possibility of humanity.
May we be a helping world for a hurting world.
May we never lose our sense of compassion,
our cup never be too full to care and respond.
May our love and spirit be with all who mourn loss,
with all who work in the grace of recovery.
May we walk in love, care and compassion.
—Kay Mutert, TuscaloosaAL May 2, 2011—
