I'm feeling an interesting mix of things today -- sadness, compassion, and hope for everyone on the East Coast who has been affected by the storm in ways big and small and gratitude for my life and the spot that I find myself in right now. It is not lost on me that I was supposed to by in NYC this week (my trip was postponed to later in the year) and that 5 short months ago, I was living in a location that was devastated by the storm. Timing? Synchronocity? Plain ole' good luck? Perhaps all three or perhaps greater forces at work. I don't have the answer.
I do have this theory that life takes you exactly where you need to go, when you need to be there and I've been proving this theory for my whole life. I actually like this theory and I've very much enjoyed watching it play out in my own life. Right now I'm in the most "unlikely" of places -- in some ways I'm somewhere I never quite thought I would be. And yet, it's feeling like the perfect place. I suppose you could say I'm at the intersection of nothingness and possibility.
A little over a year ago, I was living in a town hit by Hurricane Irene. It was an interesting experience. I was alone in a house when the storm hit and throughout the aftermath. I discovered something in the wake of no electricity, cell phone, Internet connection, etc. -- nothingness. And in that nothingness, I found a delightful peace. While I heard people complain about not having power and the comforts that it brings, I found myself delighting in my weather-imposed "retreat." I read by candlelight. I got to bed early and rose with the sun. I connected with myself. I helped others. I sat in silence (the night the hurricane hit, I sat listening to the sounds of nature at its most violent). Everything and everyone seemed to slow down (granted there was a lot of complaining about and frustration over the reasons behind it but the result was the same). There was nothingness.