When our World Falls Apart

With all the natural disasters happening around us in terms of world shift and none of them within our individual powers to halt them, I decided today to discuss when our world falls apart, how do we respond?

I woke up this morning to a loud crack and then a rumble of thunder. Thinking nothing of it, I went back to sleep only later to be told by my son that our swimming pool had lifted out of the ground with the rising water table. I stumbled into the kitchen to discover a pool of water in the scullery and a drip through the ceiling in my study. My roof was leaking and the damp proofers were here just last week. To top this all, my windscreen wiper blade went on the blink and it was pouring big rain drops outside. I thought I faced a bit of a challenge.

You see, no matter how much we prepare for the storms of life, how much maintenance or damp proofing we do, when the great tsunami comes no amount of sheer force or will power will avert it in its tracks.

We can stand outside hollering and protesting with placards to God, but the flood or earthquake or whatever disaster will run its natural course.

The choices we have are the following:

-          Run outside and face it, screaming blasphemous obscenities

-          Run away as fast as we can

-          Stand and survey the damages, ascertain what can be done to rescusitate the situation and take appropriate action

O.k. we know the first scenario well. How often do we go into anger and denial and poor me mode. ‘God how can you do this to me?, this can’t be happening to me, bad things are always happening to me, it’s not fair....’We all know how much stress we impose upon ourselves by blaming everyone else and acting the poor helpless victim.

The second scenario is the one where we run away from life’s problems and leave someone else to deal with them, scarcely realising that more challenges are going to hit us just around the corner. Haven’t we observed a particular friend who has jumped out of a troublesome marriage and then subsequently hopped straight back into another relationship with all of its complications, almost repeating the same cycle?

Then we get the third scenario, where we assess the situation and make the choices as to how we are going to move forward. It is only in our staying in the present, staying calm and almost detached from the situation, without becoming emotional, that we can then weigh up the situation and decide how to handle it. After all getting angry at a natural disaster is not going to take it away. Shouting at God to fix it won’t help either.

It is rather wonderful to observe how some people pull together in these times of trouble and collectively join forces to give of themselves, their time, their material wealth, their prayers, their physical strength, etc. It is wonderful to see how many rise to the challenge and dive right in without even being asked.

It really is when life bumps us around and messes with us that we get the chance to work our residing discomfort into a place of greater ease. We really get to see how we react.

It is our choice. We hold the key to the door of tomorrow. It is by our actions today that we create our futures.

So, let’s decide today to not take life so seriously. There are always many more who have it a hundred times worse than us. So let’s make the most of every situation we find ourselves in.

Tip for the week:

Get to higher ground and buy an umbrella.

Have a happy week

Yours in sunshine

Nicolette