Good morning to all!!
For some reason, I find a need to blog on Sundays...so I guess that if you don't hear from me much during the week, you can always count on a "Sunday sermon" LOL.
First off, I would like to extend my thoughts and prayers to those effected by this terrible hurricane...and the ones yet to be effected. Preparation can be the key to survival...please be safe and be careful!! While at work last night, I would peek at the TV screen here and there and got this gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach when they were showing Irene and her path...she is a big one to be sure...and I don't think I would be messing with her nor underestimating her power...seek safe shelter, because anything material you may lose, you can replace and rebuild...it is the universal cycle...and unfortunately, there are times when the forces of nature will not be reckoned with and we are at her mercy.
So I guess I will make this storm the basis of my blog today, try to give some useful philisophical insight on how this subject matter can really speak to us in every day life...and we shall see how well I do with it...
"The calm before, the devastation/fear/panic during, and the destruction/devastation after, the period of mourning...and THEN, the period of "reconstruction." Are you following me so far? Some storms seem to spring from out of nowhere, when we least expect them and they catch us at our most vulnerable state. We are forced to think on our feet in a hasty manner, panic ensues, and it happens SO fast, that there is no time to even gather a thought let alone think about having one...you just DO, sometimes without even thinking at all...fight or flight..natural response. Then there are those storms that are "slow moving" or that spawn smaller storms and release them as they go, and while one area is attempting to rebuild, the next is being hit..and before you know it, it is a tragedy of epic proportion...and in this as well, even though it is slower moving, there is time to prepare, and you have TIME to gather your thoughts and sketch out a mental plan, these storms are unpredictable but relentless and their slow pace tends to wear us down. So which is the better scenario, confusion and chaos at onset, or TIME to create MORE confusion and chaos by questioning predictability, what-ifs, how-abouts, and whys?
In either case, mistakes WILL be made, things WILL be lost, mourning WILL inevitably happen, and alas, rebuilding a given. Which of these two storms cause the most damage? No one can be certain...and it is useless to sit and ponder...it causes what it causes and you DEAL with the damage at hand...when it is all said and done, THAT is where the rubber hits the road. Sometimes the amount of preparation just NEVER prepares you for what the storm brings and what it leaves behind.
So I guess what I am trying to say here is whether prepared or not, it is IMPERATIVE that you BE PRESENT, see and feel all that goes on around you and inside of you, BE it, become the mind of it, the heart of it, the loss of it..it will guide you in the processes to come...the mourning of the loss and the rebuilding of your life. Which will bring GAIN of wisdom, faith, hope, and apppreciation, strength and prosperity. To not be present is a detriment to the entire process..hiding, running, avoiding, self-medicating, thinking and NOT doing are the very things that produce more storms along the way, or keep the main storm's epicenter swirling, and the slow methodical circlular nature of it tearing into every inch of land still left to devastate.
There WILL BE relief, there WILL be redemption, there WILL be life.
Blessings to all who have weathered the storms and have found themselves back at ONE.
Prayers extended:
"Father God, Today I am afraid. I look around me at this world that is changing so fast and I feel lost like a small boat in the midst of a storm. I am not built to weather the battering waves or the howling wind. So I wait now in your presence. You spoke the oceans and the four winds into being. You threw the stars in the sky and separated the sea from dry land. You took the hand of Peter who was sinking into the depths of the water and walked him to safety. I choose now to fix my eyes on you and not on the storm. I settle my heart on your love and not on the current that threatens to pull me under. Thank you that you are my firm anchor even through the darkest night, Amen."
"Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn't people feel as free to delight in whatever remains to them?"~Rose Kennedy.
"Faith is not simply a patience that passively suffers until the storm is past. Rather, it is a spirit that bears things - with resignations, yes, but above all, with blazing, serene hope."~Corazon Aquino.
"God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform. He plants his footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm."~William Cowper.
"If patience is worth anything, it must endure to the end of time. And a living faith will last in the midst of the blackest storm."~Mohandas Gandhi
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