Lost Connection

A reflection on light, faith, and hope

This weekend marked the one year anniversary of Hurricane Helene ripping through our community and devastating other communities. We found ourselves again watching the news and watching hurricane paths this weekend, too.

I looked across the street this morning at the two houses that have been abandoned for a year since they trees crashed through them. I remembered how close it was to us and the sound of the trees coming down.

Even as we watched the events unfold in our neighborhood that morning, we didn’t ever anticipate that we would lose connection. We had lived through the 1000 year flood in Columbia, Hurricane Matthew, and the COVID pandemic with an infant. Even though we weren’t able to leave our house, we never lost the cell phone connection that tethered us to our loved ones.

But as we tried to check on our daughters in Asheville and our family in town, again and again we received the message, “Connection Lost.” When we weren’t able to find connection through cell phones, I found myself talking and interacting with anyone we met along the walking trail to the coffee shop that still had power. It didn’t matter that I didn’t know them because we were all connected to this devastating event.

Without thinking I asked, “Where you all right? How about your house? How about your neighborhood? Do you need anything?” The lost connection actually helped me search for connection with complete strangers. Suddenly, no one was irritated or frustrated waiting in line or waiting for a plug to charge what they needed. Instead we were all thankful to see each other.

A year later as I think about the way we as a community started to congregate in places that had power, I realized that this is what is missing. We have become so used to being connected all the time to news streams, events from around the world, and posts and comments that we have lost connection to the people we pass every day. We have forgotten that these connections are the connections that remind us that we are all God’s beloved children and we have all lived through something that has shaken us to our core.

I’m incredibly grateful that the recent forecast is saying that the storms are taking a different path. But the storms of life truly do teach us the importance of staying connected to each other no matter what it takes to restore that connection.