The space between.
The devastation in my hometown of Asheville, North Carolina and surrounding areas hits very close to my heart. My dad survived despite many close calls and destruction he is now navigating, but I’m so grateful that he and the rest of my family are okay. While I recognize I’m on the other side of the country and I’m not in it like my family, friends, and former classmates are, I also grieve with everyone. I owe many of my cherished childhood memories to the mountains, waterfalls, small towns, and backroads of Western NC.
As I sat with the heartbreak of what I saw on the news and heard from my family, I couldn’t help but scroll past photos I took in places that are now virtually gone. One that stood out to me was the beloved Lake Lure Flowering Bridge, which was mostly washed away. When Jack and I visited in November 2022, I snapped a photo of a quote on the bridge that must have caught my attention at the time, and struck me this past week reading it again:
Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate,
And though I oft have passed them by,
A day will come at last when I
Shall take the hidden paths that run
West of the Moon, East of the Sun.
- J.R.R. Tolkien, The Road Goes Ever On
One interpretation of this particular passage is that it speaks to somewhere between life and death, light and darkness. It is that space in between, a transition point from what was, to what will be. ‘West of the Moon and East of the Sun’ is not actually a place where one can really go, or stay.
Those hit hard by Hurricane Helene had no choice but to be in this liminal space. Maybe it feels a bit like being dropped in no man’s land - surrounded by both darkness and destruction, and an overpowering sense of light and love in the community coming together for one another. Each person is now standing on a threshold and faced with where to go from here. As for me, I also find myself navigating this space between, holding on to the beloved memories of what was, grieving what will never be again, and looking forward with hope for all that can and will be.
