Find the Center of Your Hurricane

Find the center of your hurricane

Find the center of your hurricane, which isn’t always the weather.

As I write this, the remnants of Hurricane (now Tropical Depression) Guillermo is dropping rain on us.  Hurricanes in Hawaii are a big deal.  We’re thousands of miles from any help and each island is a sitting duck for such a natural disaster.  Thankfully, Guillermo is bypassing most of the island, though heavy rains are expected for Oahu and Kauai.

Guillermo has been a threat for over a week, and we’ve watched it approach since before it had a name.  Reports arrived daily from specially equipped airplanes which flew over the eye.

The eye is the center of calm amidst the chaos.  I think we all wish for a similar space in our lives, where the outside rarely intrudes and a calmness rules.

It’s tough.  The world is a hectic place with demands that don’t get any easier.  Jobs, family, friends — it’s a never ending carnival ride with increasing pressures.  Finding time for yourself is next to impossible, but it’s crucial that you carve a little bit of time from your day to center yourself and live in the joy of the now.

Pay attention to what’s important. It’s not always the weather.

Put down whatever you’re doing and notice what your family is doing.  Savor that moment.  This morning, I was babysitting my 18 month old granddaughter and had brought along a book to snatch some reading, even if it was a paragraph at a time.  But I put it down and watched her as she rested against the sofa, eating a piece of cheese, as she dumped crayons out of the box then methodically put them all back, over and over, as she ran to the lanai to watch a plane fly overhead.  All mundane activities and none needing close supervision (maybe the crayons), but all opportunities I would have missed if I’d continued to read.

Maybe your demands don’t allow the time to read, or think beyond what has to be done at this moment.  But step back, carve out a fixed point in time, and look around you.  There’s beauty in everything.  Find it, draw peace from it.  Take a deep breath.  Recenter yourself.  Find the center of your hurricane and smile.

Blessings!

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