A cataclysm is defined by Webster as a flood or deluge; a momentous and violent event marked by upheaval and demolition; at the root of it is the Greek word kataklyzein, to wash or inundate.
I've always been taken with the sounds and meanings of words. As an avid reader and a former foreign language student, I am intrigued by the levels one word can have; in three syllables, cataclysm captures the rushing and tearing apart that happens so often in our lives. You can hear the waves crashing down on you. You can feel that overwhelming presence of chaos. You can see all that you know being carried away from you on the currents.

Within it, however, is that same feeling of cleansing and rebirth. Yes, all is washed away by the deluge, but the flood waters also leave you stripped of the grime and salt that has built up and coated you. You are left fresh.

In the Biblical creation accounts, we hear a story about the earth emerging from the deluge and flood. We see chaos as that powerful creative force that is there even before the land and the air. It is that first thing from which everything else is formed. So being, this cataclysm is at the center of each of us, the essence of who we are as created beings.

I consider it appropriate that the sounds of the words cataclysm and catechism are so similar. In a world whose very beginning was inundation; of water, of light, of creative force; we find a need to steady ourselves. In the midst of chaos, we discover answers that we know to be constant. We have been cleansed of falsehood, envy, and sundy other temptations that fall away when we re-examine who we hope to be. In this process, we discern answers about our very nature. For us, these become catechism - what we know to be true, day in and day out, while the deluge of life surrounds us.

As I considered starting this journal that would expose my daily thoughts and concerns to anyone who fancied a peek, the act of naming was my gravest concern. In one phrase, I needed to allow people to identify what they would find; I needed a catch phrase that would give them a glimpse of my reflections, and be the key to whether or not they chose to delve deeper.

I find that these two words capture the essence of what I wrestle with; that constant struggle to remain afloat, knowing that in the middle of the cataclysm, as all is crashing around, I can take solace knowing that some things are constant - those answers about the essence of who we are, our catechism.