Godric and Sunset Rum

 A whiff of the scent of sunset rum wove in and out of my nostrils as Brent and I breathed deep of the slow Friday afternoon. It was good. It seemed a long time coming. We talked of things that matter and things that don’t. 

Life can be hard. Sometimes those brief moments of peace, when the pace of the world seems to slow on its axis, bring a fresh draught of water to a weary soul and steady the mind that feels lost amidst the crashing waves and darkness of the storm of the week before.

At least that’s how I felt.

Frederick Buechner writes of two men in ages past perched on the roof of their church watching rain raise the level of the River Wear, bringing it nearer and nearer to where they sat. That moment lends to this observation:

“Time is a storm. Times past and times to come, they heave and flow and leap their bounds like Wear. Hours are clouds that change their shapes before your eyes. A dragon fades into a maiden’s scarf. A monkey’s grin becomes an angry fist. But beyond time’s storm and clouds there’s timelessness. Godric, the Lord of Heaven changes not, and even when our view’s almost dark, he’s there above us fair and golden as the sun.”

In the midst of my own storms past and those to come, I was granted a brief look through the dark clouded heaven. I was graced with a moment of peace and nourishment and a brother who shared in it.