Relevance is a powerful thing.

I just finished reading a Solomons Island article in the Sun by Rona Kobell. It’s well written, and I think Kobell does a fine job of capturing the way of life on Solomons. To a reader who has never been there, I believe s/he will leave the story feeling a little sad for this small community that has lost two of its friends earlier this spring to fire.

But for me, as a local to Solomons Island for several years in the early nineties, it means so much more to me. Reading her piece brings backthe breeze off of the Patuxent, leaving the heavy, brackish scents of the bay in my hair. I replay the Polaroids of sunsets over the bridge, the walking along the shores kicking up sharks’ teeth during low tide, the pairs of pileated woodpeckers around my wooded cabin when I would return home from a good day of teaching.

Mostly, though, Kobell’s article makes me mourn the loss of the Bowen Inn and the Lighthouse Inn, both destroyed by fire on the Ides of March. It makes me grieve a little more in regret that I had not returned to the Island more after I left, and it makes me look a little more critically at how I spend my days now, not seeing friends and family as often as I want or should. I know, unfortunately, how I might feel should tragedy take them as well, especially after so many missed opportunities to just visit, drop a card in the mail, find them online, or give them a call.

Those were peaceful days in Solomons, and I believe we are given those times in our lives to help us through the tougher challenges we often face. It’s that peace that got me through last night’s workout. I was approaching mile three on the elliptical, and I felt as if I just couldn’t go on. How easy it would be to just stop pedaling and be happy with what I had already accomplished. But in my mind, I visualized that peace, that beauty, and the strength of those images helped carry me to my goal and hit the three-mile mark.

Pull your strength from such peaceful days from your past and use that energy in a strong, positive light…I believe the results we receive will become our new peaceful days for tougher times ahead…