Hurricane Ian may be whipping around instilling terror and flooding, but the first thing he brought my way was unbridled crankiness. And defiance. Crankiness because of the boxed-in darkness that has become our house once we put up the hurricane shutters. (Yes, boxed-in syndrome is actually a thing.)
And defiance because this Ian guy is disrupting our lives. How dare he come barreling through my perfectly scheduled week to rearrange everything?
Of course, one of my favorite adages came immediately to mind:
We plan, God laughs.
I then had a choice. I could keep being cranky and defiant which, in turn, would make the entire boxed-in household cranky and defiant. That’s never a good move in general, but it’s an even worse move when you can’t just head out for a walk, or hop in the car and go to the beach.
So, instead of being cranky and defiant, I decided I’d instead do would I could to soothe the dogs and not annoy my beau.
Don’t you love when you realize your happiness levels really are under your control? Even better is when you actually DO something about it.
Writing has always been one of my great escapes. A life lesson has been to use it to release and share what’s on my mind. Here comes several more life lessons this hurricane seems to be blowing our way.
Accept the things that are out of our control.
Sure, we may have some level of control over our happiness levels or attitude, but that’s about it. Other people are out of our control. Life and death is out of our control. What happens today or tomorrow is out of our control. And unless you’re a certified rain maker, the weather is out of our control. Acceptance is one of the best life lessons. And, for the record, accepting something doesn’t mean we have to like it. It just means we’ve stopped fighting against it.
When it comes to man vs. nature, nature is going to win.
Hurricane Ian is a prime example of this one. But so are rattlesnakes, hungry lions, tsetse flies and that downpour that comes on parade day.
The more you struggle, the harder things get.
Remember those Chinese finger traps where you had to extricate your two index fingers from a woven tube? The more you pulled and struggled, the tighter and more horrific it got. Same thing with life. Loved this life lesson enough to buy a whole batch of those finger traps for my coaching clients.
Hang out in the eye of the storm.
Hurricanes have long been used as a metaphor for life. It comes blowing at you, kicking up all kinds of chaos and debris. But you get to pick how you ride it out. You can certainly stand there doing nothing, letting swirling worries and troubles hit you in the head. Or you can choose to rise above.
Breathe in the light. Let it take you higher. Envision yourself transcending the swirling chaos and resting peacefully in the eye of the storm. You can look down on the chaos below, but you don’t need to be a part of it. This perspective makes it easier to deal with whatever comes blowing your way – not to mention giving you one heck of a view of Florida’s Gulf Coast.
One more lesson that I got from today’s daily meditation. Not sure if it was coincidence or irony. The topic was “Throw Your Troubles into the Wind.” Perfect suggestion when Ian’s wind speeds are expected to hit the triple digits. Goodbye, crankiness, defiance and woes. Hello acceptance, happiness and serenity. I’m riding it out in the eye of the storm, grateful for shelter, shutters and the choice to ride it out by rising above.
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