Harvey- 1
Excerpt from the new book-
You will see in previous chapters I have written about the Zen of business and carving a creative life. I have experienced the Zen and the incredible aspects about the subconscious and the tools of which I have written. I know the blessings of the universe as some would call it, though in my personal life’s journey I refer to it as God. I know that the principles in this book work. I have seen people have success by using these tools. It has happened time and time again, but today my heart is heavy. I can’t think of business. My acknowledgments and affirmations feel like long ago whisper instead of firm resolve. My meditation is not a planned event like it usually is, but instead, because I know how much meditation helps and breathing helps, I simply take a moment when I feel the stress or frustration and say, “This is a good time to take three deep breaths.”
Sometimes you find you are in the midst of something so much bigger than yourself that just putting one foot in front of the other is all you can do. I know there will be times, in the lives of the readers of this book, that they will suffer devastation in one shape or another. It may be a business loss; it may be the death of a loved one, it may be a traumatic world event or an individual assault. It may be a natural disaster, or it may be something that you are responsible for, and you find yourself stuck in a mode of unforgiveness.
“There is a saying in Tibetan, ‘Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength.”
No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful experience is, if we lose our hope, that’s our real disaster.” Dali llama
When you are in the midst of tragedy you often feel anything but strong. I don’t feel this tragedy alone. 13 million people who try to recover from the devastation of a tropical storm Harvey that the news describes as the “Biggest rainstorm in the continental United States also feel it. “ Meteorologist Jeff Lindner with the Harris County Flood control district. On August, 29th tweeted “one trillion gallons of rainfall has fallen in Harris County over four days which would run Niagara Falls for 15 days. “Houston’s average rainfall is 49.7 inches of rain a year. Harvey brought 51.8 inches in a few days. The news reports that the measurement of rain was over 4 feet, in gauges around the city. I write from the center of Houston. I’d like to tell you how many days it is after the storm but as a meme on Facebook states “People in Houston don’t know what day it is.” This meme is right. I don’t know what day it is.
The frantic prep of a hurricane is enough to set one on edge. Knowing we would not get the winds since Hurricane Harvey was coming in the southwest of Houston I did not need to do the tedious and exhausting task of boarding up windows. I did prep by securing clean water, getting a generator out and working, and buckled down to what I thought would be a productive writing stint. Wrong.
For those who don’t know about hurricanes let me enlighten you. Each hurricane has what meteorologists refer to as a “dirty side.” The dirty side is usually the right side. What happened to Houston during Harvey is that there was high pressure from the north and high pressure from the west that acted like two big hands holding it in place. Though Harvey came into Houston’s left, we sat on the dirty side for a very long time before Harvey then went back out into the Gulf of Mexico and came back in again closer to Houston.
It was an anxious anticipation of what might happen. Having a hot spot on my phone, thank you AT&T, and an HD antenna in my attic, combined with electricity and a prepped generator kept me connected. Instead of working on this book I spent my writing time posting on my Facebook page about the news I was watching, the evacuation notices, and tornado warnings. I posted about the rising waters, and my feed turned from pictures of my art and writing to a feed of information that people told me was especially helpful. Many people had no television or electricity and only their phones. I kept in touch with friends who were on their roofs waiting for evacuation. I posted websites where people could list their evacuation need and where others who had boats could assist. My job turned into sitting in a chair and “sharing, ” and I had no idea how important that simple task in social media was, until this disaster. If you are in a disaster or know someone who is, simply hitting the button titled “share” and sharing the posts of needs on your feed, and making them public is a great way to spread the word and help others. There is great power in this resource.
Meanwhile, I watched the water rise in my yard, thankful for a two story studio and that my x husband asked me to store his canoe. I thought about purchasing a dry bag, a type of bag that you take canoeing or kayaking. I would save copies of all my important documents and then take it, should I need to bug out. I, as writers do, thought about the many books I had in the process. Where they all backed up? Was this book that I nearly finished backed up, and would that back up be safe in flood should I have to bug out? For an author, their books are their babies.
To be continued
Breathing between raindrops and sorrow
Pusche