Cyclone Batsirai and Covid Thoughts

Tana prepared for two days for the arrival of cyclone Batsirai, a category 4 cyclone that was supposed to absolutely destroy the eastern seaboard of Madagascar. For the first time in nearly a month, garbage dumpsters were cleaned with haste, city water drainage cleared without a single piece of debris remaining, and any tree remotely near a powerline was clipped neatly and promptly. Batsirai was supposed to hit us sometime yesterday afternoon (my Saturday the 5th). But the winds of fate have changed, both literally and metaphorically, as Batsirai drifted south and now barely clips us here in Tana. The same cannot be said for the rest of Madagascar south of us where they will experience the full power of the storm’s force. I pray for those in the storm’s path. Cyclones are not much different than hurricanes in the South-East United States.

In other news, I can confirm that Covid really is global. My colleague Megan and I both tested positive for the virus on Thursday and have been isolated in our apartment since. I tell you that we’re both in good health with minor symptoms of a sore throat and some nasal congestion, nothing like the terrible delta variant that caused so much distress last summer. And although no omnicron cases have been officially detected on the Big Island, I can’t help but think that what I contracted is most certainly this strand. I guess we will never know.

I don’t have much else to say really. Isolation in Madagascar is just a mind-numbingly boring as it is in the United States. I wake up, I eat, I shower, I pray, I read, I write, I watch a TV show or a movie, etc. The process is nearly identical. But my few days in isolation have given me some time for some more personal and silent reflection. It is amazing what a time of silence and lack of external duties can stir in the mind. Nothing profound, mind you, but nonetheless interesting and, sometimes, comforting.

I confess that there are moments of homesickness. It would be absurd and concerning if there were not. They come and go, usually when I’m bored or when I’m tired. Both boredom and fatigue typically accompany one another. Nonetheless, I was having a bout of homesickness last week on my way to Church when I caught myself.

We often don’t catch ourselves very well when things like this come up. A feeling is aroused in the heart, sprouting up as if it came from nowhere. It roots itself in us without us ever realizing it. There, in our hearts, these feelings grow until it is far too late to catch it at a manageable size. At this point we are overwhelmed with our emotions, barely able to set about giving ourselves the proper remedies because we are already overcome with emotional sensations. Yet, by the grace of God I caught an early waft of the thing as I panted up the 416 steps I climb to get to mass every Sunday morning.

I got to the cathedral, sat in my pew, looked at the tabernacle, and said, “Lord, what am I doing? I’ve been eying up the return date on my calendar for three days. Why? I’m not living in the moment. I’m still worried about the future. Let me forget about the future. I want to worry about the here and now. Give me the grace to be present in this moment, to be with You.”

As I said before, it was a moment of grace that I eagerly accepted which allowed me to see that I was slipping into a worry about the future. This moment of grace set off a long thought process in my mind the entire week. This was the question I have struggled to answer. That is, what exactly is the present moment?

I haven’t consulted greater minds than my own, of which there are plenty. But as far as I can tell, the present moment is whatever is in front of you. It is emptying and filling the dishwasher and taking a moment to offer the action to God. It is folding laundry. It is sweeping and mopping the floor. It is wiping down the counter. It is sitting down for 30min in the afternoon just to rest. It is speaking with a friend even though you’d rather do something else. It is picking up that book you have struggled to read. It is putting aside social media and electronics simply to be present in the physical things around you. It is doing your job without looking at the clock to see how much time has passed. It is the sacrificing of wanting certainty about the future or wishing the past had gone differently.

Life is the simple, the ordinary, the mundane. Rarely are our lives filled with constant excitement, pleasures, and joys. There are moments of sorrow, happiness, fatigue, boredom, intensity, and all other sorts of nouns that span the infinite spectrum of the human capacity for emotion and states of being. All too often, however, we are concerned with the past or the future, forgetting that the moment in front of us is the only place that we can encounter each other, God, and ourselves. And so I pray that we all embrace this present moment, that we all seek after this encounter which only takes place in the here and now. May it change us, make us more patient, more understanding, more at peace, and, most of all, more loving towards God, each other, and ourselves. As always, know that I pray for you each morning. All I ask is that you do the same for me.

May God be praised.