Monday, 29 October 2012

Hurricane Sandy -God Bless America




John Minchillo/Associated Press                      The East Coast prepares for Hurricane Sandy


A few years back I stayed in a hermit's hut 
in a Franciscan hermitage in the woods of Minnesota.

It was almost May
 but snow still remained under the trees, 
which themselves looked as though they had been through a fire,
 so seared were they by the bitterness of the winter
 they had survived.

I learned while I was there 
that driving into a white-out and praying to get through,
re-planting your orchard after the trees 
have been up-rooted by a hurricane, 
sleeping in the airport when storms blew in, 
or having a wild cat turn up in your back yard
 are just a few of the things we would see as extremes, 
but there are regarded as routine.

For the first time I realised up close
 that it is the untameable nature of the country 
that maintains the Americans pioneering spirit.

They are a "pick up and start again" people,
 and as if to underline this,
as I write, an American woman
 being interviewed by Paxman on the effect of the super storm
 on the forth coming election,
 is telling him that though it is serious 
they are used to riding out storms, 
and that this will not have the effect we over here imagine. 

Wow!


As this great storm unleashes it's force,
 and as the American people ride it out, 
I echo the nation's prayer,
God Bless America.





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