Flying Through The Typhoon

Dad was a navy pilot in the pacific during WWII.  His many stories of this time filled family gatherings.  One that has stuck with me most was his experience of flying straight into a typhoon.  When the plane was in the storm, the noise inside was louder than can be imagined as it barrel rolled through the turbulence.  Once he made it to the eye of the storm or the center, "the peace and stillness were beyond description.  It is so quiet, still and peaceful in the center while the storm swirls viciously.'

 

I wonder if this experience taught Dad how to live through life's storms.  He had many that could have easily done him in, had he allowed himself to be drowned by the noise.  Dad knew how to find the center though.  He had a little corner in the house where he would go to find stillness.  It had a small header and blanket (he was always cold), and favorite treats to munch on.  These things sustained his body while he spent time with his tattered bible, writing and in prayer.  This is where he would find that peace which passes understanding through the many assaults that threatened to rob him of it.

 

I too have had many storms, as I imagine all of you have had as well.  I have learned to carve out a space and time at least once a day.  In this place I reconnect to that center which houses God, and I know that storms that rock and threaten to drown me in their noise, will not.  This place and connection are stronger than any storm.  You have to experience it for yourself.  I would love to hear your stories of flying through the storms and finding center.  What is your practice?  How do you do it?

...And he woke up and rebuked the wind and the raging

waves; they ceased, and there was a calm.  He said to them,

"Where is your faith?"

Luke 8:24b-25a

 

 

Dr. Elizabeth Conrad, Minister of Christian Formation