Dear Spiritual Friends,

I live in New Orleans.  As many of you know we had a major hurricane – Katrina hit us August 28, 2005.  We have been trying to put our communities back together ever since.  It has been a big challenge.  We have run into many problems related to factors out of our control.  It has been quite a teaching to see how I handle the parts of life I simply can do nothing about or change.

How about you?  What is your response to being helpless?  If you are like me you might have times of simply running away.  Eat something, drink something, watch sports, read, talk with friends and on and on.  You might also try to fight it.  The rotten government, those who don’t care, doesn’t anyone see our plight and on and on.  I have tried those various possibilities all to no avail.

What I have learned is to be vulnerable.  Cry when tears begin to fall from my eyes, feel the anger because my world has been violated, sense the happiness found in someone caring.  There is more, but the real key is found in my weakness.  My spiritual director said, “Pain is a given in life, suffering is optional.”  Hurricanes are a part of Nature as are tornado’s, snow and ice storms.  When you live in this world the natural unfolding  of life events will occur.  It is what we do with them that create suffering or possibility.  Fight or flight doesn’t work.  Standing still and resting in what is may be the way to wisdom.

What is it about letting life be what it is that causes us problems.  Maybe it calls into question our illusions.  The biggest illusion is we are in charge.  We supposedlycan make anything we want happen.  It is in our culture and often in our religion.  If you try hard enough you can make it happen. If we believe enough then we will get what we want.  In truth, maybe what we think we want is the worst thing for us.  Maybe even worse is the thought we can make life happen.  We become god.  We no longer need God.  Notice the small “g”? We have shrunk God to our size. It simply doesn’t work.

God, by whatever name we call God,will not punish us for trying on It’s Identity.  No this Higher Being will wait until we come to awareness and leave our illusions behind.  When we are weak God becomes strong.  The apostle Paul wrote those words.  Now comes the hardest part – God’s kind of strength is not ours.  Life is let to be what it is.  Hurricanes are not changed.  They are simply left to be what they are, invitations to vulnerability.  We don’t run away or attack them, we deal with the fallout.  We see what happens and simply live in the midst of them.  We use them as opportunities to put our lives together.  We see loss and let it go.  We see opportunities and help them grow.  We feel weak and do nothing. We ………… you fill in the blank.  The courageous individuals are the ones who simply show up.

I have talked about hurricanes because that is affecting my life.  What is the hurricane in your life affecting yours?

Peace

Gary