We humans love equilibrium. We want our edges nice and smooth. The reality of our existence is anything but smooth. There are days that are torrid with depression. There are days when our minds rebel. Relationships strain and fracture. Disaster strikes. We do not desire these things, yet to deny these things is to deny the reality of life.

Life with all of its comings and goings; life with its happy surprises and saddening losses. Life with gaping loss and miraculous encounters. To acknowledge the heavy is to acknowledge need. This year we were forced to admit that we were powerless over our addiction to control, that our lives had become unmanageable.

A hurricane is a reality. A hurricane is a metaphor. Reality is fractal. Any way you look at it, Hurricane Helene turned us upside-down this year and left our roots sticking up embarrassingly in the air.

Here are some pictures I took, which only begin to communicate the rapid destruction that hit us in Western North Carolina Fall 2024.

Parts of it were good – we cooked all the meat in our freezer with friends. We met our neighbors around trees that crushed vehicles. We checked in on people that we didn’t know. We sat around fires and boiled water for coffee in the early morning. Everything was still. There was no hum of electrical power. There was not vehicle traffic. The unmuted stars met us as we sat in the dark night, waiting…waiting…waiting.

This Too Shall Pass

This post is published on Ash Wednesday, an appropriate day to announce an album entitled “The Heavy.” There is a time for everything – in this season it seems appropriate to sit with a collection of songs that have been soaked and wind-blown as a reminder that this too shall pass.

This album has been a steady companion to us as we have worked it to completion in these post-hurricane months. We hope it will be a companion for you too. A soundtrack to sooth whatever “heavy” you are facing.

“The Heavy” will be released on 3.14.2025, everywhere you find interesting music.