A little over two years ago, a friend and I enjoyed dinner in a nearby town and casually talked after in the parking lot.
The weather had been unusually beautiful for weeks, and living in a safe community, I even left the back door open to my screened back porch when I was gone.
On my way home that night, the unexpected happened. I turned the corner onto Ranch Road 12 in San Marcos, Texas, and in an instant started driving through forty minutes of treacherous, torrential rain, the likes I had never seen.
I knew if I stopped, the low-water crossings would be flooded, and I might not be able to get back home.
Focus. Focus. Breathe. Relax. Pull over when driving got ridiculously so bad that I couldn’t see a thing. But I couldn’t pause for long; another car might hit me if blinded by rain while on that hilly, winding, country road.
I tapped into the energy of my client John, who likes storm chasing, so I would stop white knuckling the steering wheel.
Arriving home safely, I later learned that neighbors pitched in during the middle of the storm to create a protective barricade. A deluge of water surged from across the street attempting to enter a home two houses away from mine.
The next morning, I awoke with my chest wheezing heavily, gasping for air and sounding like a zombie when I spoke. At first, I thought it was bronchitis.
Even so, I assumed the worse was over. After all, no water had entered my house.
However a few days later, I wondered why my furniture suddenly had a wide swath of green that looked like someone had painted a nearly foot-wide stripe – – and then I found the same streaks across my kitchen cabinets and bathroom. I soon discovered that it got inside my drywall, furniture, kitchen cupboard and on most of the items in my living room, too.
The ferocious, pounding rain and wind hit the ground with such force that it dislodged mold and sent it flying through my open, back door and into my home. When the heat rose to a certain temperature, the mold bloomed.
It took me many months to remove mold from my drywall and home as well as recover from the mental stupor, lack of energy and ill health that mold creates. Add to that the financial impact of not having been able to work beyond taking care of my clients.
It definitely was one of the most challenging times of my entire life. But I got off way easy!!
Twenty miles away on the Blanco River of that Memorial Day weekend, a log jam was created from felled trees and branches… until they let loose. Within three hours, the river rose 33′, cresting at 40′.
People, including a family, were washed away.
Riverside homes, even those out of the flood zone, were ripped apart from their foundations when the force and volume of rising water overwhelmed them. When the flood carried those houses away, and they bobbed down the river, their roofs were knocked off by trees. With nothing to hold the structures together, the houses just fell apart and became rubble.
Overflowing great distances beyond its banks, the rushing water damaged bridges, countless homes and businesses. The landscape changed as huge trees that previously had lined streets no longer existed. FEMA took residence in my small community for months.
- I was so incapacitated from the mold that I didn’t have the energy to drive a quarter mile out of the way, during my trip to town, to look at where some of the worst disaster hit, let alone help others. The effects of the mold sometimes made it challenging to speak or have the mental clarity to respond during conversations or get out of bed to eat. For a while, with the mold inhabiting my body and mind, I was zoned out as if I was on an opiate drug and couldn’t think or care about anything. It was a rude and frightening awakening when I was able to swim out of my daze. I felt like I’d been under water and had to push myself to the surface and to breathe air again, only to witness the catastrophe that was happening around me in my home, health, personal and financial life.
Years ago, I heard that natural disasters are life’s way of creating a personal growth program. There are gains to be made amidst the crisis.
As bad as it was at the time for me, it was a blessing in disguise.
I can attest that, out of necessity, my harrowing experience forced me to let go of both beliefs that I considered sacrosanct as well as people who I discovered were out for themselves, not for me.
When I did release them, my life became better than ever because some of what I thought were “good and positive” ways of showing up in the world were the very things that had held me back.
When drowning, a survival instinct kicks in. I had to take care of myself or go under. I had no energy to babysit others’ issues or their unconscious, self-serving ways.
Part of my Resolved for Results Mastermind Principle #6 states, “I choose to use my personal empowerment on my behalf, which allows me to serve life more fully.”
Instead of taking years to understand lessons like this more deeply, I condensed my learning curve into months… including the necessity of letting go of worry and fear.
As life reflects back the energy of our thoughts and feelings, why did I create this? I had been deeply concerned about a business challenge, so I created something else to worry about instead.
And, yes, because I had no energy to hold onto the original issue, the solution manifested during my months-long experience.
“Soulutions” came when I let go of the worry and fear that bound me, making room to be open to answers for which I’d been asking.
Another lesson, ask for breakthroughs with grace and ease.
My community recovered as it pulled together in new ways, too. Strong. Compassionate. Having received help from others.
Now during the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, while remembering that help, individuals, businesses and the local police are returning the goodwill of love to help those in need who are a few hours down the road.
Everyone who’s experienced Harvey will have their own story to tell, what they (had to) let go of, what they learned.
Labor Day is a celebration dedicated to the strength and prosperity of American workers.
On this national holiday of Labor Day, in my part of the world, are demonstrations of labors of love.
How will you celebrate your labors?
With gratitude, Virginia
P.S. Know someone who might enjoy reading this? Please forward.
I work with people, at any age, who choose to share their gifts or business in a BIGGER way but don’t know how, feel stuck or would benefit from new tools or support.
I help them be richly compensated doing what they love by aligning with their Soul’s goals.
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