I was struggling to find a topic for a year-end reflection and an idea to reflect on the past year came to mind. I think 2022 has been a challenging year for many, including myself. I invite you to do this reflection with me.
On a personal note, this was a year when my mother battled with breast cancer, when I returned to the Philippines to assist the family, when a good partner in ministry (John Robinson) died while I was away, when there was a great flood in Cotabato City (my home city) and surrounding areas, when my thesis project on its last stages is having great challenges…and so on…
You might wish to pause to consider some of your 2022 challenges as well.
I think when Russia invaded Ukraine early in the year of 2022, it was traumatic for all of us. We were just getting out of the pandemic and we struggled in trying to protect ourselves and others from COVID-19, especially when it evolved to Omicron, a fast-spreading virus. We have put our whole energy in ensuring safety and life. Then, an invasion that is death-dealing! How can one accommodate that in one’s psyche? It was followed by the domino effect of the war. Inflation rates rose which were challenging for many who were already experiencing economic crisis!
And there were more upheavals that happened. You might wish to pause again to consider some of the headlines of 2022 and how they affected you and all of Earth’s inhabitants.
Yet amidst all of these, we have not fallen into despair. We continue finding God, life and hope in different areas of our lives. I am not able to articulate where my hope is coming from or what it is that keeps me hopeful. Emily Dickinson captured this kind of hope in her poem, and I leave you with her words as reminder and blessing of hope for the coming year1:
“Hope” is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I’ve heard it in the chilliest land
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
1 Emily Dickinson. Poem available at: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/42889/hope-is-the-thing-with-feathers-314
Sr Patricia Lourdes “Petite” Lao, RNDM is a religious missionary of the Congregation of Our Lady of the Missions. She is currently a doctoral candidate of the Toronto School of Theology (Regis College) with a research interest in Indigenous-visible minority dialogue and the truth and reconciliation process.
I wrote this article prior to my sister’s sudden death. Christmas day in Canada, Dec 26 in the Philippines. Another challenge to add to what I enumerated already. (In memory of my sister, Suzette “Jojie” Lao.)
Thank you, Petite; indeed these are prescient words in light of Suzette’s passing. I am reminded of Thomas Merton’s description of God as “mercy, within mercy, within mercy.” It is this mercy which gives me hope when I can find none; it seems to find me. May that be so for you too.
Petite – with you and “the thing with feathers”, I sing “the tune without the words,
And never stop at all”
Petite, I am with you at this time unexpected and sudden grief. I have met Suzette a number of times and i relive her memories and pray for mom and all of you. No words can express what my heart wants to tell you but know that you are held very dearly in my prayer.