The storm

Even in the roughest of times, can YOU create your own rainbow after the storm?

Its funny how people’s true colors come shining through when people are faced with a crisis.  Five nights ago, a terrible storm came through the area which left over a million people without power.   One thing that has come to my attention in these trying times is how much people take for granted, on a daily basis.   It is trying times like this that really allow people to be seen for who they are.

There are the individuals who think the world owes them everything, it is these individuals who will stop at nothing to see that they survive first, get their needs met, and do not consider anyone else’s needs when it comes to realizing their own. 

For the most part, my experience with this storm has been very enlightening for me in many ways.  It has really showed me how much we depend on technology, both, for survival, and to get through our daily routines.  I, personally would not change a thing about the past few days, even though these past few days, I have been a little hungrier, a lot hotter, and a ton more stressed, it has been an eye opening experience, one that has allowed me to reflect on many issues that surround myself, my family, my community, our nation, the world, and just plain old communications and relationships in general. 

Ok, I must first start by being completely honest with you all.  The first day after the storm, when I awoke at 9am and there was still no power, I was like “oh great, what now.”  I picked up my cell phone, no service, tried my computer, no service, no television, heck even my home phone wasn’t working.  I then grabbed some batteries to place in my century old boom box.  This is when I started to lose it a bit, when I realized that the radio wouldn’t even work.  I know this may seem a little ridiculous, but I’m not sure if it was the lack of communication (and not knowing what was going on out in the world) that had me more upset, or the fact that there was no music!  Now, after the fact, I would have to say that it was the “no music” that had me more aggravated than anything.  No matter what is going on in the world around me or in my life, it has never been something that a good song with a funky beat and some great lyrics couldn’t fix, and this was no exception!

I hopped into my VW, and was met by immediate gratitude as the noise from my XM satellite radio came bursting through my car speakers; this was one purchase that will never regret investing in.  Immediately my mood was heightened tremendously as I cranked up the tunes and headed towards town.  As I began my 45min. journey into town, I began to see the level of destruction the storm had caused, and as I arrived into town, I was surprised to realize that they, for once, had it much worse than us “mountain folk” did.

As I arrived into town, the level of destruction was fierce.  All of the stoplights were down, gigantic trees had fallen everywhere, parts of people’s homes were missing and thrown in the most unexpected places, utility poles had fallen on top of cars, there were no stores, restaurants, gas stations, or anything else open, and the whole city was completely out of power.  I was astonished as I drove, slowly, through the city…WOW; this storm had caused way more damage than I had originally thought.  A feeling of sadness engulfed me as I realized the extent of damage that the storm wreaked on the people of my community.

The majority of the mid-Ohio Valley’s residents are middle/lower class citizens who live week to week and sometimes just manage to get by (which isn’t a bad thing because they are some of the most generous and giving people even though).   Being from a hardworking community of middle/lower class citizen, which I too am a member, is one I am proud of because we tend to appreciate the things we do have that much more, and there is a strong sense of community and belonging among the people of this community for this very reason.  Many of these people will not be able to buy new food, fix the repairs on their homes and cars, or even stand to be off work for the days that the offices/buildings/factories will be shut down.  My heart reached out for these people, especially the ones whose homes and cars were destroyed, and who probably didn’t have more than the basic liability insurances on these items.

One example that really touched my heart was a family who is friends with my older brother.  They are a working class family with several children.  They rent their home, work hard, and do their best to raise their children with values, morals, and kindness.  As I drove by their home, with my brother, he pointed out to me the fact that the second story of their rental home had blown off of the structure and had landed in their driveway, on top of both of their cars.  My brother told me that after the storm, they walked outside and was devastated to see that their home was basically gone, their cars were destroyed, and then to top it off, the winds took away part of their fence and their dogs were also gone.  This broke my heart, to know that everything that people have worked so hard for was gone in an instant. 

As I continued on my drive, witnessing the destruction, my mind shifted from one of sadness and despair to one of gratitude and love.  As I drove through my communities, I saw families, together as a whole, sitting on their front porches laughing, joking, playing games, then there were the smaller children playing in the sprinklers in attempt to cool off.  No one was indoors, behind a computer, television, or gaming system, but rather, families were connecting in meaningful conversations and working together to repair and rebuild their homes and communities.   

As I turned each corner, there were more and more people pitching in to help one another, as I witnessed these people connecting to support on another, the sights filled me with the utmost joy.  This is all that I have ever wished, dreamed, and envisioned for the people of our great world, to sit back and enjoy the small things in life, time with family, butterflies resting on a flower, a dog chasing its tail.  Just an overall gratitude for surviving the storm, and the blessing of sitting face to face with their loved ones.  These are the things that blessings are made of, connecting with loved ones, the community, and their “higher power,” to realize that, hey, as long as we are lucky enough to still be standing on this great Earth, there is absolutely nothing that we can’t overcome as long as we put in the effort, all of our hardships will be overcome. 

In my opinion, people should be thankful because it is incidences just like this that give us the hope and strength to carry on, figure out a way, gain knowledge, ask for help, or reach out to others in order to gain that resilience that allows us to keep strong and carry on, no matter what is thrown in our paths!  In fact, it is situations just like these, throughout my life, that I have had to face that have made me into the strong and independent woman that I am today.  There were times, in my past, that I used to say “why me” but now, I thank god for those incidences because they always taught me a valuable lesson, you just have to choose to see it that way!

My interactions with others have been a mixture of good and bad, throughout the chaos that the storm has created.  Some people choose to focus on the bad aspects of the storm and the damage it has caused, which is getting them nowhere, and only adding to their misery because they are attracting more negative energy back into their lives.  Then there are those individuals who choose to see the storm in a positive light, “well hey, no work, yippee!  Guess this means card games with the kiddo’s and time to run in the sprinkler!”  These individuals are not allowing themselves to be weighed down by their thoughts even though they have just as much stress and worry as the other individuals.  I mean, how often is it that people have off of work for an entire week in the month of July?  Sometimes we must choose to leave things in the hands of our Gods, and focus, instead, on the here and now.  What can be done to fix things, if anything?  If you can’t do anything about the problem, why not choose to focus on the one thing that is most important in life, time that we have with our loved ones. 

I have heard that thus far, 12 people have died in this storm, in our area, including a man who had a tree fall onto his car and crush him to his death.  Now think about it peoples, are those jobs, paying the bills, that fabulous new addition that you put on your house, or some extra work that you may have to do really all that bad?  Imagine this man’s family, who, not only have to deal with the mess of the storm and its aftermath, but to lose a loved one at the same time, and trying to plan for that.  Please take a minute and try to be thankful for the things that we do have. 

Has anyone ever thought that maybe, just maybe, it is high time that we stop worrying about things like money, materialistic goods, status, power, wealth, titles, jobs, etc. and start to appreciate the small things that we take for granted each day?  The things, that we may not even realize that we are doing at the time, like giving our undivided attention to our children when they are talking to us or trying to show us something, or stopping to smell the roses and appreciate the natural beauty that we are blessed to have in our lives to enjoy.  With the natural disasters that this Earth has been dealing with for the past few decades, you would think that most people would learn to appreciate things like these, because without our beautiful and healthy nature, we would have no world……without a healthy environment, we wouldn’t have life of any form, or a place for organisms to survive if we continue to take these things for granted!

It is like the people of this world are slowly but surely doing it in.  Almost like a drug addiction, more and more, but yet never enough.  More waste, more wants, more technology, more toxic waste that is produced from these wants, more more more!  Where does it end and when is it too late?  Shouldn’t we just be happy with the simple things like being able to share joyful memories with loved ones, being alive and healthy, being able to enjoy all that mother nature has provided us,  and for being able to live our lives in freedom?  If we cannot learn to appreciate these things, there will be no us, eventually!

In my opinion, most of the things that we want in life are not needs, they are wants.  It is these wants that tend to destroy, both, the world and the people in it.  Most of the time, it seems to me as if what people “want,” isn’t really what they want at all, in fact, their wants seem to revolve around some type of competition.  Everyone trying to compete with the jones, our country competing with other countries, always, people trying to outdo one another or worrying about how they will appear in someone else’s eyes.  Whether it is for power, greed, status, money, or popularity, it is as if everyone is trying to outdo the next.

 Let’s talk about power for a moment, because this is a topic that just seems to get under my skin.  First of all, in my opinion, people who try to exhibit power or control others are just plain lazy individuals.  You cannot get anywhere by pushing or shoving someone around so that they will do or be the way you want them to.  When a person approaches a situation in this manor, it is a temporary fix and will backfire in the person who is “in power’s” face.  If you ask me, these people (controlling and authitarian), no matter what title or how much power that they hold, are just plain lazy and incompetent!

 A person with real power has the power to control themselves, to always act out of love, kindness, compassion, and forgiveness no matter what they are being faced with.  Rather than try to control someone through force, these individuals will mentor, role model, support, encourage, teach, and relate to others.  Yeah, this is a longer and more exhausting and consuming process, but like they say, good things never come easily.  These are the strong individuals, the ones who can go and go and go, never giving up hope that a better world, or a better way is out there.  No matter who tries to knock them down, discourage them, kill their dreams, or obstacles they are up against, they persevere and create a much stronger group, nation, world, or culture.

 Now, WHO TO YOU SEEMS MORE POWERFUL? 

(1) The people who push, give orders, act out of fear and hate, compete with others, and HAVE to have control and power no matter who they hurt physically, emotionally, or mentally in the process,

OR

(2) The individuals who act out of love, and no matter what situation they encounter, they always act out of love, understanding, and acceptance and no matter what, no other person or situation is ever able to change this about them! 

In these crisis times, there have been the people who push their way through, cut in front of you for those loafs of bread or tank of gas, do not wait their turn at the broken stoplights, and would basically fight you tooth and nail for survival.  These individuals (which I have seen quite a few in the past few days) remind me of those “mean and selfish” people.  You know, the individuals who have to try to degrade, bully, talk bad about, be mean, etc. to/about others in order to look good or get ahead.  The ones that are not confident enough in themselves and their abilities to reach the heights of others, so much so that they have to knock down others to bring them down to their levels.  I advise these individuals to think again, because these people that you feel the need to degrade are usually the kind of people who do not break under pressure or do they allow their self-concept to be affected by others opinions of them.  This is exactly why they are at the conscious level they are, therefore, not able to be knocked down to your level.  RISE UP, try harder, give everything your all, never think you know it all, always realize there is more to learn and people that are better and smarter than yourself and always strive to compete, only compete against yourself to do better.  Anyone can do it, but it can only happen when you focus on you, only you, and working within your limits to do, and be the best possible version of yourself that you can be.

For those selfish individuals that I have encountered during this storm (like the woman who cut in front of us all at the BP on Rayon Dr. for gas), you may have all the resources that you need for survival; however, I have all the things that I will ever need, myself respect and my pride.  Never, ever would I stoop to your level, even if I thought/ believed that the world was ending, I would never give up my conscious and soul in order to survive because one day, when this world does end, those type of things aren’t going to get you anywhere anyways.

For my fellow lovers, if you are ever faced with a crisis or “survival of the fittest” type scenario like this, please do not let your love, morals, ethics, character, and values fall to the wayside because in the end, it is these things that will open up the gates to an eternity of happiness and love with others who mirror yourself, not the tank of gas, the last bit of water, or the last morsel of food!

Once we give up this power, we open up the gates to growth and success.  We realize that we need others, we need our earth, we need a clean and healthy environment, we need support, we need encouragement, we need happiness and joy in our lives, we need to become aware of who we are and all that we can accomplish in this world, for ourselves, for our loved ones, for our Earth, and for our future generations but in order for this to happen, we must live out of gratitude and love.  Love for our planet, love for others, and most importantly, LOVE FOR OURSELVES!

Be thankful, focus on the good, try you’re hardest, accept your weaknesses, and most importantly, realize that we are all in this together.

If you find yourself unhappy, you must journey within, because nothing outside of yourself is going to complete that void and bring you happiness.  Unhappiness means that there is a part of you that is incomplete or missing, which means there needs to be change, and no one else can figure out exactly what that is, but you! 

So instead of that new purse (that you have to kill all those animals to make...rrrrr), that new car (that burns all that horrid gas and produces harmful chemicals that kill all of our beautiful nature), that diet coke that you “must have” (yet throw away the bottle so that our world becomes consume with waste), the need for oil (to produce all those goods by machine yet dumps into our beautiful and vast oceans), that bag of trash (that you spent all that time containing to the one bag, yet throw it out your car on the side of the road), all the things we do not recycle (that eventually go into the ground and are consumed by us through the water), and everything else, that money “can buy,” TRY TO FOCUS, inwards instead and figure out what you are missing in your life that you have to cover up with materialistic goods.

Imagine a life with clean air, healthy foods, serene nature, no toxic waste/spills, leisure time with loved ones, running through fields of flowers, feeling the sunshine beat on your face or the gentle wind kiss your cheeks…shouldn’t these be the things that bring us the most happiness, yet we are doing all that we can to see that it is taken away from us forever!

MAGICà    LOVE, LIGHT, LAUGHTER, & PLAY....& IN THE END THERE WAS…….BLISS<3