“I Feel the Earth Move Under My Feet….”
Remember that old Carol King song? “I feel the earth move under my feet. I feel the skies come tumbling down.”
Well this week I actually felt my very first earthquake!
I was sitting at my dining room table having lunch when suddenly my table started shaking. I thought it was odd but then I felt my floor shaking under my feet. I thought I was hallucinating!
Then my dog started barking and things on the walls started rattling. I thought my house was falling down!
But when I ran to the front window I saw my neighbor’s house shaking as well. I never thought it might be an earthquake because we’ve never had one here in Pennsylvania before.
So this brings me to my point that the whole earth is shaking, not just this week, but things are changing on a very deep level and sometimes that feels very frightening of course.
It’s time for something new. The earth is a metaphor for our world and the changes that we all need to make. So rather than fearing the changes maybe it’s time to embrace them and move into the storm.
When fear strikes we tend to react or pull away. That is actually the worst thing we could do in most circumstances. If we can retain our calm, balance and clear thinking during the storms, then we can actually move through them and come out on the other side into calm waters.
Years ago I heard someone say that a psychological tenant of the stock market was that when times are lean you need to push forward and when times are expansive, you should pull back instead.
It is psychologically counter-intuitive to do, but truly the best thing for managing the energy. We tend to do just the opposite when we are scared or panicked. In fear we restrict, when what we could do instead is push for a bit more space and expand.
Where is the earth moving in your life? Where are you resisting it or wishing things would just settle down to how they were? Life needs to change. That is a fact that we need to embrace, especially in these times.
Instead of resisting or reacting, find the point of the wave and ride it forward to new ground.
Yes, what would we become if our expectations were not shaken a bit now and then. But, anyway, there is little point in expecting the unexpected. It will take care of itself. And well, welcoming it is a positive attitude, only I think it’s only fair to say that a) it rarely has our well-being in mind, and b) sometimes it is totlally unacceptable and unlovable. At worst, it does away with all our plans and with the planner as well, and clears the ground for something new. Yes, new and better things may come, but we won’t be there as part of the landscape. And if it is only our world that disappears, and we remain to see what’s new after the catastrophe, it’s not even the older self that is left to watch the rebuilders or give a helping hand. The old yesterdays will stay under the rubble.