Fog (Original)

# Fog Through The Hills

### \*ahem\*

They were never wrong. They said the hills were cursed with monsters, we believed them. They said that the hills were the spawn of God, we believed them.

But who are they?

They are the Voices. The hills, speaking to us, wanting, seeking... they control and manipulate us. We never went minutes without hearing them. Except when the Fog rolled in. When the Voices became Whispers, until inaudible. Then the Fog would speak. Through us.

The fog didn't steal us. But it gave us as a gift, it gave us the gift of Whispers. Why did it talk to us? What is our place in this world? The Fog controls our thoughts, its voice only heard when the Whispers are pushed aside. And the Fog controls the media and therefore our thoughts and world view, giving us a small bit of control in a hellish world.

Sound peculiar?

Consider the Shadow in Lord of the Rings. There were many creatures - Gnomes, Orcs, even a Witch King - but there was only one evil force, Sauron. If there was one large evil being in Middle Earth, it was Sauron. Without him, the woods would be just as it was before. The Giants might still exist, but they would not be as powerful as they were before. He was the one that drove the Shire, the hobbits of the Shire. It is not Gandalf who is the hero of the story, or Frodo, or Sam, it is Sauron. He forced them all into his evil clutches and used them, even with their good deeds. He hid in the hills, with that massive stone, the mirror of the sun.

Sauron is the overall ruler of the Shadow, his ways being twisted by a master who is its advocate.

The Fog controls much more than our thoughts, it controls our hearts, our souls, our ambitions.

Here in Boston, we live among a forest that is foggy with fear, a fog that has permeated our lives, a huge, smothering, completely smothering fog. We go about our days, living them, getting through them, but each day seems to bring more gloom. Each day, it seems, we wake up to some new horror, some new large, impossible terror. A hurricane, a hurricane, another hurricane. Just last week we learned that four students at MIT were sickened by an alleged deadly flu - that flu that is finally at the end of its 42 days of walking the world with out interruption - and now we learn that maybe it isn't just flu that we are facing. What if it is Typhus, instead? Whatever it is, its direction seems to be right over our heads. Another hurricane, or the smothering fog takes us under.

Each day brings more heartache. Each day seems to bring more doom and gloom.

Take a moment. Now consider yourself. Don't think about your career, your house, your things. No, think of yourself as you were before: a person, as pure of heart as the morning light. This morning I say this to myself. Not only am I a person with thoughts, desires, aspirations, ambitions, I am also a being with a heart. Yes, my heart is what gives me life. What if the rain and the fog and the fog and the beating of my heart - the heart beating - was all taken away? What if, without that beating sound, all of my actions no longer mattered? What would happen to me?

The fog creates more and more confusion, more and more stories, and our lives begin to be more and more lost.

There seems to be no light, nor reason. Just barely navigating our way through it. There is nothing else we can do.

But, yes, do make sure you have ample gas in the car.

As many gas stations as possible. And, yes, continue to pray. For those who are lost, for those who have lost loved ones. For those whose only escape from the clutches of the fog has come to the end.

Many of us can't figure it out, there are people who want to run as far as possible from it, yet can't help to wonder why it has such an effect on us. To our families and friends who wake up each day and wonder what their hearts hold.

And why those around them seem to be suffering under an awful cloud of despair. Yet many still live in hope.

In the hopes that they will come out on the other side. As I sit and blog and continue to cry, I pray for peace. As I watch news reports, I am once again struck by the cruelty and the senselessness of human behavior. As I cry out for goodness and grace, I pray that the Lord will once again bring us that little bit of joy to set our hearts ablaze. I don't have the answer. The only thing I know is that this is not good. It is not good that those we hold dear are suffering in so many ways. I know that I pray.

Not that God will stop all of the suffering, but that God will come down and show us His love for us, and to show us that He is there, even now, even if our earthly hearts cannot understand.

But, no matter how much you pray, please, keep praying. We need to hear the words of our God. We need to know that He will never stop watching over us, protecting us. We need to hear Him say that He is with us, and will be with us always. Please keep praying.

Pray that He will give us what we need, and not what we want. And he will cast away the Fog. But, will he? What if he does not exist? Because we have all prayed. We have asked that we may not hurt. Will it be enough?

Will our prayers break the spell, and grant us our hearts desire?

Will He not hold us, protect us? We have.

All of the time. And, for this moment, I am grateful.

No matter what you believe, or do not believe, there is much on this earth that you cannot deny. When you live in this world, you cannot deny the fact that there is loss. Whether its a person you love, a forest that is slowly being gone, or a bird that barely makes it through the day. No matter how much you can ignore, ignore, ignore it, life still goes on. That storm you are looking at in the distance, the feeling that there is more out there than your small life, is still there, even now. Because life isn't about the good times, it is about the bad times.