saturated in surrender.

November 25, 2012 in General

The latest class of VerbTribe just ended. This week, I will feature on 37days the writing of VerbTribe members in this most recent class. These excerpts are in response to daily prompts the class provides, and I hope you will appreciate the voices of these writers. If you’re interested in becoming a VerbTribe member, go here for more information on the next class that begins January 3, 2013.

Saturated in Surrender

-Donna Schwender

Run. Run as if your life depends on it. Because it does. Because there is a raging wall of filthy brown water that is littered with the debris of the lives of your upstream neighbors and it is seconds away from erupting in one horrific orgasmic burst through the last sentry of soil that stands guard between you and it.

Swim. Swim as you’re both pushed and yanked off your already unsteady feet. Because of the terrified one-hundred pounds of wet German Shepherd attached to the end of the leash that is wrapped in a death grip around your wrist. Because you’ll do whatever it takes so the two of you don’t become separated during these last few hundred feet to safety.

Pray. Pray hard. Thank the angels swirling around you for helping you do every important thing that flash-flooded into your mind during the 97 minutes you had to save that which you deemed worthy. Thank the dear Lord that, during those 97 minutes, you had gotten your mother, your husband, 6 cats, 5 dogs, 2 horses, and finally – finally your saturated self – to the highest piece of ground left to flee to.

Hope. Hope floats. Surrender to the fact that you’ve done everything you can and that it’s now totally out of your control. Surrender to whatever will remain once the rain finally ceases and the light of day once again engulfs the sky and ushers you into your forever-changed world.

(photo by Donna Schwender)

About Patti Digh

Patti Digh is an author, speaker, and educator who builds learning communities and gets to the heart of difficult topics. Her work over the last three decades has focused on diversity, inclusion, social justice, and living and working mindfully. She has developed diversity strategies and educational programming for major nonprofit and corporate organizations and has been a featured speaker at many national and international conferences.

2 comments to " saturated in surrender. "


Kath Sargent

November 25, 2012 AT 12:30PM

You make it clear that surrender first means doing what you are able to do, as an agent and a vital part of the unknown to which you then surrender. Not a victim of some great powerful entity, but a real part of a huge something that does everything. First do. Do your part, I do my part, we are something powerful.

Donna Schwender

November 25, 2012 AT 5:48PM

There are people we are blessed to meet in the course of our lifetime that we might never meet in person, but that change us more profoundly than the beings we encounter face-to-face on a daily basis. You, dear Patti, have changed my life for the better, in ways that will likely have a ripple effect for many years to come. Bless you for accepting my “strong offer” and for sharing my words with the world…..