by Chaplain Deacon Wayne Charlton

It seems like it has been raining forever (at least to me, those I live with and several people I have talked to recently) but it really hasn’t. I thought about how easily we forget, not only last year’s rainfall, but how past hardships most times fade and give way to memories of the “good times.” I thought about cancer patients and how so very often they are able to lift my spirits with joy beyond imagining in the midst of suffering and uncertainty. Often in those experiences I am reminded how really trivial my problems are and how embarrassed I am about my complaints (over things that are so insignificant). I thought about how quickly my/our patients regain hope and convey it so clearly…giving me/us hope to pass along to someone else.

For many right now there is a lot of uncertainty. Covid-19 has made uncertainty a “way of life,” or rather a part of our lives in a manner that we could not have imagined. A patient told me, when the pandemic first spread to our part of the world, that she was going to write an email to her family and friends and entitle it “Welcome to my World.”

We’ve witnessed, in the work we do, how patients live in uncertainty and now it is “personal” for just about everyone. To complicate things even more some of those we work with are now faced with a huge amount of uncertainty as a result of the financial problems.

It is like a huge boulder was dropped into the pond of life (with the spread of Covid-19) and the ripples were just beginning to settle, and then an asteroid hit! The good news is that with the amount of rainfall we are having the pond will be refilled very quickly.

So, even in the dreariness of this day and with the huge cloud hanging over institutions (creating a storm in many individual’s lives) I am able to offer encouragement, encouragement that comes from last year’s rainfall! Take a look below, even though this year seems like the “worst ever” we’ve had less rain than last year and WAY less yesterday then in 2008!!

I hope there is a message in this for anyone feeling like this is the “worst ever” rain-wise or even time-of-my-life-wise. Remember the sun is still there above the clouds. Remember how you have been surprised by life (for the good) in the past and know that the potential will always be there for this to happen again.

Please be good to yourself and stay well.