As we emerge from lockdown and begin to step out into the summer, its a good opportunity be grateful for all that we have been given.
Had we been told in February 2020 that we were entering into more than a year of isolation, we might have thought it could only be unimaginably difficult. While it has been that for some, it has also been a time of unimaginable creativity and unexpected depth for many.
In these days we found ways to communicate and to care for each other. In these days we found time to be in nature and to allow nature to bless us. In these days we balanced joys and sorrows carefully, treasuring each moment in a new way.
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain. Is not the cup that holds your wine the very cup that was burned in the potter’s oven? And is not the lute that soothes your spirit, the very wood that was hollowed with knives?
… Some of you say, “Joy is greater than sorrow,” and others say, “Nay, sorrow is the greater.” But I say unto you, they are inseparable. Together they come, and when one sits alone with you at your board, remember that the other is asleep upon your bed.
(Kahil Gibran, On Joy and Sorrow)
We are grateful to be here together in June 2021, emerging slowly from our Upper Rooms.
We are grateful for everyone who has supported the Margaret Aylward Centre in this time with your participation, your facilitation, your presence or with how you stayed in contact. We are grateful for the Holy Faith Sisters, whose foresight in creating this centre allowed us to stay connected and learning together even from within our cocoons and 5km limits!!
We are already at work planning our Autumn program. In the meantime we have made a short video to remind us of all the online courses we experienced together in lockdown! May it be a reminder of all we have been capable of, of all that is to come. Thanks be to God.
Video Link: https://vimeo.com/552922513
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