by Marjorie St. Clair
Have you heard the expression “it brought me to my knees”? By the time you receive this issue of Women Raise Our Voices, people on Maui who experienced the devastation of the Lahaina fires last August 8th, 2023, will have passed the one-year mark since that life-altering event brought me and thousands of others to our knees. Those of us who were trapped inside our cars in Lahaina Town in the late afternoon of that day came face to face with the Angels of Death. Over 100 people died, and the entire town of Lahaina was burned to the ground. Sadly, by the time you receive this issue of WROVoices, we will have witnessed the outcome of another horrific event…the recent unbelievable destruction from Hurricanes Helene and Milton that struck the Southeastern United States, leaving numbers of people dead and entire towns washed away
Strangely, the reality of being brought to my knees reminded me of the years I lived in Paris some decades ago. One of my favorite things was to shop the march au pus or flea markets for antiques with my close friend Rose. One rainy Saturday I spotted an unusual chair whose seat was beautifully stitched in needlepoint. It had a high back, and the seat was only inches from the ground. It didn’t look like any chair I’d ever seen.
Too low for a dining chair or a chair to sit in, so what was its purpose I wondered? Rose who was a longtime Paris resident and collector of antiques explained. “Why that’s a prayer chair … a Prie Dieu … You kneel on the low seat and rest your arms on the small piece at the top. These chairs made it easier to kneel and pray for long periods of time.”
In spite of not seeing any usefulness for these chairs, I was taken with the Prie Dieu chair and soon bought a couple of them, not really understanding what my attraction was other than it being unique to me. Surprisingly, I found myself on occasion being drawn to kneel in prayer on my Prie Dieu when I was in great emotional and mental distress and confusion. I discovered that the very act of kneeling triggered feelings of surrender and humility. I felt an instant connection to a higher essence that felt loving and kind, and I became like any other suppliant kneeling and asking for the Divine’s grace and strength.
I don’t recall what happened to those prayer chairs, those Prie Dieu, but I do remember how it felt to kneel and bow my head. The act of kneeling was cathartic in itself, whether I uttered a prayer or not a word. It also didn’t require any affiliation with a religious institution.
Like so many Lahaina residents, I was brought to my knees after fires destroyed my home, burning everything I owned and taking the lives of my two cats and eight neighbors in its blazing inferno driven by hurricane force winds—two forces that when combined were so fierce that within hours the entire historical town of Lahaina had burned to the ground, leaving only melted cars and burned out buildings.
On the other side of being brought to my knees from this devastating event, which we’ve all experienced in one way or another, there exists what I experienced and have come to call “portals of possibility.” Some might call these possibilities “a state of Grace” that is given to us. In our state of grief, shock and often despair due to whatever tragedy has befallen us, these “portals of possibility” give us miraculous moments of authenticity, clarity and connection. Suddenly, we are clear-eyed and can see what’s really important in our lives; the people we love and who love us; the realization that we have a purpose for being alive on Planet Earth. After we’ve lived through a disaster or war or death of a loved one, we are transported through one or many of these portals which have the power to restore our sight and bring us sudden and transcendent ideas that spark our creativity and desire to live again in new and imaginative ways.
Having been brought to our knees for whatever reason has a way of opening us up to the energy of the cosmos, connecting us to the heart energy that guides us to the expression of our higher selves and our soul’s purpose. One might consider this an initiation or a Soul’s Journey of revelation. I believe that anyone who has incarnated at this time is on a Soul Initiation path.
During this time of world-wide turbulence and upheavals of all descriptions, we are all being brought to our knees, leaving us at times to feel helpless and hopeless; however, we are also being given “portals of possibility” to mend our broken hearts and to awaken to the realization that together we can forge… are forging… a new path forward that we create out of a newly found clarity and strength. We have all stumbled, fallen, grieved and despaired, but when we kneel in surrender and humility, we are imbued with the power to miraculously rise up and see again how it is that we shall make our way forward to justice and peace and most of all, to love. Once we were blind, but now we can see. Add your Divine Spark in whatever ways speak to you for creating this magnificent vision of a brave new world that awaits us. We’re all in this together!
With Aloha!
Marjorie St. Clair
Marjorie St. Clair is an adventurous spirit at heart whose interests have guided her in diverse pursuits from teaching, writing, and coaching, to artist-musician-performer and spiritual mystic. She founded Writer’s Adventure and is the author of A Southern Belle in Paris, Writes of Passage and Wild Women Write.