Weatherwise

Greetings all,

If you've been in the eastern half of North America this past week there has been only one thing on your mind and that is the weather.  It is rare that I have to shovel 4 times in one week, but this was that week.  I never fretted too much about weather until years ago when I drove home in really cold weather where my windshield wouldn't stay thawed.  I recall I had scraped enough ice to see out which took a herculean effort with the tiny scraper.  What I didn't count on was that people wanted to drive their normal 75 mph even in the slippery conditions.  They kept slinging slush onto my windshield as they passed which kept freezing.  This made me go slower which made more people pass me which caused more slush to be splashed onto my windshield.  Since that time I have been very cognizant of what conditions are on the roads.

This week was about delays.  I didn't get to the pool but once this week, but I figured shoveling snow was my workout on those days.  I had my first official meditation group cancelled.  I couldn't get to my office to see clients.  I didn't get to go to this month's trance dance.  I also didn't gather with some of the local shamanic practitioners to ironically enough honor the weather.

It is times like this that I am grateful that I can for the most part work from home.  I wrote material for my book.  I got to experiment with some new sculpting techniques.  I did some event planning.  I also got to sink further into my home study course that I am going through and practice some of their meditation exercises (actually I will practice one right after I post this blog).  My meditative practice flourished amidst the frigid weather and it gave me very clear guidance about where my heart was not aligned with some of my plans.  Those delays due to the ice and snow have served me well and prevented me from diving into more projects that I am just not aligned with.

Delays are frustrating but so often they happen for our benefit.  Something I try to remind myself when someone is driving 20 miles per hour under the speed limit in front of me.  A lot of times it can feel like opportunities are missed, but they are usually ones that we are better off not pursuing.  The first time I was ever snowed in I ended up writing a term paper and finishing it two months ahead of time, just so I would have something to do. How is that for turning a situation around?  I must say as treacherous as the past week has been I am grateful for the deep freeze, it kept me firmly anchored in the present and focused on what was immediately in front of me.  I allowed this weather to serve my best interests, so from my heart I say thank you polar vortex.

How about you? Are you finding ways for weather to serve you?  Are you using any delays that it creates to rethink your plans?  Are you too fixated on zipping around?  Are you focused on what you're missing instead of what you can address within?  Maybe you are too busy in your life and the weather is giving you an excuse to empty out your schedule a bit.  It is good to be active but we tend to value busy too much in our culture.  What if you allowed weather to give you permission to say no to more activities so you can be with you and your loved ones?  Try shifting your perspective a bit and try to stay warm.

Peace and Blessings,
Thomas Mooneagle