by Sr. Sheila Campbell, MMM  Ireland  21.10.2021

This morning I went out walking at my usual early time.  It was still dark, but that wasn’t the problem.  What hit me like a wet blanket as I opened the door was a dense, misty fog.  I immediately remembered the fogs of my childhood in Belfast.

When fog descended in those days it was usually acrid, smelly and caused by the hundreds of coal fires and furnaces all over the cities.  They could often last for days and it made the walk to school unpleasant in the mornings.  With the Clean Air Act in the 1950s, things improved rapidly, thank God.  No more air pollution fogs around now.

No, this fog was just a heavy mist.  I could still see what was directly in front of me, but I couldn’t see the end of the driveway and of course, nothing of the road ahead.  I saw enough, but not the whole picture.

That is when it hit me. This is exactly like my life just now.  I am in a new job that I don’t know well. I want to go forward but my steps are hesitant because I am not sure of what lies ahead.  I am “foggy” even in my ideas and the direction I want my life to take at present.

Now, what is the call when we are faced with this dilemma?  It is a call to trust.  I remember a quote from Mother Mary:

“The more difficult things are, the more we must love, the more we must trust. Without God we can do nothing, but with God we can do all things.”

Mother Mary wrote these words in 1954 when she was building the Hospital in Drogheda and she was receiving requests from all over the world for Sisters to come and help in the medical field.  I am sure she had her “foggy” days too, when the future was unclear and she was torn between the needs in Ireland to build up the Congregation and the needs overseas.  She talks about a call to trust and to love.  That’s all.  It sounds so simple, but, as we know, the simple things can be demanding too!

So, as I open my work computer this morning, I smile, and take the first steps into the day.  God will be with me; I am sure of that.