Are You Alright Right Now?
There’s a story of an enlightened western guru trained in eastern spirituality who told of losing both parents when he was just nine years old. This naturally created tremendous pain, loss and anxiety for him until one day he heard a voice in his head say, “Are you alright right now?”
He thought about it… looked around, assessed the moment and realized that he was indeed alright.
"Yes, I'm alright right now." he said in his head, and then out loud three times, getting louder and more bold in his pronouncement each time.
From that moment forward that little positive affirmation saved him much angst, anxiety, fear and over time, helped him through the pain of loss.
I'm Alright Right Now
We lost power and a few trees on Thursday morning. We’re on well water that operates by an electrical pump, so for us that also means no water, (no flushing toilets, etc), likely no internet most of the time, which impacts our work.
Our power and internet outage was from strong winds from the remnants of hurricane Zeta. We know that some of you were also affected, and if not from Zeta... there are many other crises underway from globally to personally.
We hope you're alright right now.
What's Important
FIRST: The most important thing to remember is that this or any challenge now or future, will not last forever. It may be a day, or it may be 10 years or more, but it won't last forever.
After we attend to the present challenge, however long it may last, we then also remember to ‘future vision’ and plan our goals and daily actions accordingly. Focus on what we can do now, do that, and also plan for when we get to the other side of this storm.
SECOND: The second most important thing to remember is cheerful resilience. Don't let hardship beat you down... let it make you stronger.
Gardeners are resourceful and we can employ creative solutions to work optimistically through any struggle. If you are alright right now, then you’re alright.
THIRD: The third most important thing is the age old mandate to count your blessings. Look for the bright side. Follow that light.
For instance, during the 36-ish hour outage, we were reflecting, how fortunate to have this "drill" opportunity to test our emergency systems and preparedness during an unseasonably warm weather day. We were able to see where we were prepared and where we came up short so that we may better prepare for any possible winter storm outages.
One of the places we were prepared was water storage systems and LED lanterns.
We could've dwelled on the incredible "to do" list that couldn’t get done, and with subsequently bigger to do's now, plus the added cleanup.
We had oak trees fall across our driveway. More on that here.
But dwelling on the negatives doesn’t accomplish anything and just makes it worse, so we’re doing our best to live on the bright side of life, and hope you are too.
Because even when bad stuff happens, a positive attitude of gratitude makes all the difference. There is always something for which to be grateful.
So try not to fret these turbulent times… it won’t help. Let’s take solace in the garden (or gardening plans, as the case may be), depending on your region, and trust that the world will calm down a bit, for no storm lasts forever.
May you have the resilience of good timber… that favorite poem shared at top. The full text and more garden memes and poems can be found here.
Good Timber
Popular excerpt from the famous poem by Douglas Malloch
Good timber does not grow with ease:
The stronger wind, the stronger trees;
The further sky, the greater length;
The more the storm, the more the strength.
By sun and cold, by rain and snow,
In trees and men good timbers grow.
Wishing you goodness and grace,
Coleman and LeAura Alderson,
GardensAll.com
