A Note From Dr. Beverly Nelson, Director
And once the storm is over, you won’t remember how you made it through, how you managed to survive. You won’t even be sure, whether the storm is really over. But one thing is certain. When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.
― Haruki Murakami
Transformation is a recurrent, non-stop process in our lives. Most times, it is subtle and we barely notice it is happening. Some other times, it can be quite obvious and even disruptive. These scenarios are challenging to us on all levels, and it is then that we have to sit down for a moment, to assimilate what is going on.
Life is a series of tests. The more we need and want to learn, the more tests we are going to have to pass. All the knowledge we need to successfully navigate a storm, and to come out of it as better persons, can be found in the little daily lessons life teaches us. By paying attention and being honest with ourselves, we will be able to identify these lessons and use them to become wiser; thus becoming better able to survive any kind of storm.
What kind of lessons am I thinking about? Those of you who have dogs are already aware of all the attitudes towards life that we can learn from them: loyalty, trust, openness of heart, spontaneity and being in-the-moment. If you have children and grandchildren, you can look at the world through their younger eyes, and see it in an entirely different way. Even the nasty clerk at the grocery store is teaching us a lesson of how important it is to have a good disposition at work, because it makes everything simpler, and more positive. A beautiful hummingbird who visits our garden teaches us that beauty is alive in the world, even if it’s just for a few seconds, and that if we blink we might miss it. How fortunate we are when we realize that!
Many of life’s lessons are not announced with great fanfare. Sometimes we can hardly acknowledge them because they are imperceptible. It’s this kind of learning that is the most meaningful, and the one that will determine how life’s ‘storms’ affect us: hopefully, we can all survive them and come out of them better, happier and more fulfilled.
What is the life lesson that has helped you survive a storm? I’m always listening!
