The Hole in the Storm: Discovering Direction Amidst Chaos

Have you ever been in one of those situations? You know… You are trying to get somewhere, or accomplish a task, or find an answer … and you just feel lost, or blind. So, you stop and look for help. You try to comprehend where you are, and how to get where you need to be. But all you learn is that you can not remain where you are. So, you just keep pressing forward (or pressing in the direction that seems like forward) with no idea if you’ll find what you are looking for. This analogous story explores that situation. It is set in the mid 1800s. A simple farmer was trying to get home on a January evening. Dark seemed to come on earlier than normal. The sky was dim and hazy, and there was a cold bite in the air. Gratefully he was dressed for the cold, but he worried that his family might be getting low on wood for the old cook stove they used to heat their 2-room house. The snow began to fall, gently, like cotton. Big wet puffs drifting down and covering the mud that colored the snow and ice that had fallen a week before. It had been nice to have a day or two with temperatures above freezing – but the wet shallow mud was bothersome – and left dark stains and puddles along the track he was following to get back home.