Last night I watched as storm clouds rolled in and lightening began to dance across the sky and I thought finally. All day the wind was brutal, ripping and tearing at everything not nailed down. The heat and humidity were palpable. The clouds began to roll in around 8:00 pm and they brought the hope of rain and it did rain in the night. When I woke early this morning the air was sweet and cool, I drank it in with every breath.
Storms – Nature’s breakdowns. In nature when the eco system is out of balance storms occur – its nature ways of settling things. It goes the same for people. You feel breakdowns before they happen, think on this. Tension, disagreement, something is wacky out of alignment; you feel it before you know it. You wait in some deep unconscious place for the “storm” that will come. Sometimes we look for a way to trigger the pending storm so we can be done with it, like nature these breakdowns have their own way of building and falling until only an event, sometimes unrelated to the actual breakdown causes the situation to blow up and then we find balance, until the next storm occurs.
After a breakdown, we get the breakthrough. In the freshness of new and relaxed energy we think and feel things through. Looking for the learning and the new growth, stripping away the debris of dead thought, old behaviors, and shed what is not working for us in the new fresh air of balance. This is where magic happens and we find ourselves, if we have used the storm well, we are stronger and more durable ready for the next storm that will come our way and it will come.
Many people are afraid of storms and avoid them, at all costs, mainly to ourselves and the benefits of the world. A more useful way is to ready ourselves for life’s storms and practice how to tap into their energy to use for our own good and the good of the world.
Edison found two thousands way not to build a light bulb. Along his path he used what did not work to invent many of other things we make our lives easier, finally his persistence paid off and he found the light. You can do the same – use every breakdown in service to developing new ways to live fully and joyfully into your life. Each day celebrate the light that comes with this willingness to be tossed and reinvented in your storms so you can live a world full of hope and transformation. When you master breakdowns (storms) like Edison you can also say – Aah I see the light!