Everything is beautiful and I am so sad

a writing prompt from Mark Nepo for you

Welcome to Writing in Company. This is a community for you, whatever your experience with writing. It’s an invitation to write about what matters—grief, gratitude, grace, and more. Each week I share some words and a writing prompt, meant to be jumping-off points. Use the prompts however you like—to journal, to draft thoughts for your own writing project, as meditation or prayer ideas, or for another creative endeavor. You can always look back through the archive for more ideas. Grab your pen and paper, and let your words loose on the page.

I was going to write a whole post about fear and faith and generosity and gifts in the wake of Hurricane Helene, here in Western North Carolina. But I’m watching Hurricane Milton right now with fear and faith, hoping my parents, nephew, and friends in Florida stay safe. I know there will be generosity and gifts that flow out of that disaster too, but today is another hard-to-write day.

Someone shared a graph online with a theory of emotional phases of a disaster. This version came from Nebraska Disaster Behavioral Health.

I can’t quite pinpoint where we are in NC. Maybe that’s because the need is so varied and widespread. Our people and places range from Impact to Heroic to Honeymoon, and disinformation has some already in Disillusionment. Meanwhile, Florida is in Pre-disaster and Impact, again.

I’m channeling my efforts into helping our Presbytery of Western North Carolina (group of Presbyterian pastors and churches) connect donations and churches in need. Apparently this volunteer role makes me one of the two Disaster Relief Coordinators, so I am already busy. Beauty in the form of generous souls is evident. So is desperate loss and need. As I write, Florida braces for a monster storm, and North Carolina weather is beginning a gorgeous fall. In the words of Mark Nepo: Everything is beautiful and I am so sad.

Use his poem below to inspire your writing today. Take a word, a phrase, an image, or idea, and start there. Keep your pen moving, and see what flows on the page.

Or just read it and send up your own prayers for anyone in the eye or the wake of grief or storms. Peace to you all.

a writing prompt from Mark Nepo

Adrift

Everything is beautiful and I am so sad.
This is how the heart makes a duet of
wonder and grief. The light spraying
through the lace of the fern is as delicate
as the fibers of memory forming their web
around the knot in my throat. The breeze
makes the birds move from branch to branch
as this ache makes me look for those I’ve lost
in the next room, in the next song, in the laugh
of the next stranger. In the very center, under
it all, what we have that no one can take
away and all that we’ve lost face each other.
It is there that I’m adrift, feeling punctured
by a holiness that exists inside everything.
I am so sad and everything is beautiful.

by Mark Nepo, from Inside the Miracle: Enduring Suffering, Approaching Wholeness (Sounds True, 2016)

If you are looking for ways to donate to immediate relief efforts, here are the ones I know are on the ground helping people.

• In Asheville, there are few better organizations than BeLoved Asheville. See what they are up to on their Facebook page: BeLoved Asheville and donate here: https://www.paypal.me/BeLovedAsheville

• Black Mountain Presbyterian Church is feeding and serving people in desperate need and stacking diapers, dog food, water, and more in their sanctuary. A donate button is on their homepage.

• I can also vouch for Presbyterian Disaster Assistance for more widespread aid now, and into the future.

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Photo by Phill Brown on Unsplash