How to Find True Wealth in Crisis, part 2

In my last blog post I started to share the story of how the home I shared with my friend Maggie in Golden Bay was hit by a landslide in the recent floods, and how we learned to turn the crisis into true wealth.  Here’s the next episode of the story.

Realizing the impermanence of everything

The morning after the flood we awoke. The rain was still falling but more lightly now. The campsite and streets were a sea of mud. Our neighbour had already been out on a reconnaissance mission and reported that our house was still standing but probably uninhabitable. A sixty meter wide landslip had completely obliterated their garden and their house would probably also be uninhabitable. I felt keenly for them in that moment. Only a week before I had stayed in their house looking after their dog; Maggie and I had marveled at the exquisite beauty of their house and garden, both of which were works of art, lovingly crafted over a decade. Here was the sand mandala of the Buddhists, symbol of impermanence and non attachment, the work of art once completed is destroyed and offered up, and the work begins again anew.

Over the next days we heard similar stories: some friends lost their veggie garden which kept them in food all year, others lost their house, a whole street was filled with mud, an elderly man was swept right out of his front room. But miraculously there was no loss of life. The damage was caused by landslip when the earth reached saturation point and could absorb no more water, and by log jamming from unsustainable forestry practices, so the losses were random. In our street and surrounding area only two houses were damaged beyond repair: ours and our neighbors.

On that first morning and thereafter, Maggie and I were certainly shaken but we felt so glad to be alive. Right from that first moment when the land slid, we had both known this was a transformational opportunity, an opening for radical change and possibility, which we had both been waiting for. Maybe it is just the human need for meaning which leads me to believe that I was there, and Maggie and I were in this together, for a reason.  Certainly, in the aftermath it was those who could see no meaning in it and therefore felt victims of the flood, who suffered the most.  I discovered that as long as I kept surrendering to what was happening in each moment and didn’t try to resist it, even though the circumstances were frequently demanding and stressful,  I was mostly able to maintain a positive state of mind.  Whenever I attempted to resist suffering quickly followed.

This may sound very simplistic but think about it. How often do you complain or feel resentful about your life? Even when it comes to something as basic as the weather we all continually complain: it’s too hot, too cold, too wet, too dry. That’s resistance to what is. Moaning and complaining about the weather doesn’t change anything, taking action does: putting on a warm sweater or a raincoat or going for a cool dip in the heat changes circumstances and experience.

Empowering ourselves for positive change

Of course we all feel grief when we suffer a loss, and crisis is the harbinger of loss. Feeling and expressing grief in all its stages, and letting it go, is vitally important.  I am talking about something else here.  We humans seem to be conditioned to complain and suffer passively without taking the action that will bring about change. We can get stuck in the rut of our familiar discomfort and become disempowered. Surrendering to what is doesn’t mean being passive, it means accepting the reality we’re faced with, conserving energy that would be dissipated in complaining, using that energy to make a conscious positive choice and taking inspired action to mobilize the resources we’ve got and create something new.

The first step in transforming our reality is to see every situation, however inconvenient, uncomfortable or not to our liking, as an opportunity for positive change and to make a choice to do everything in our power to uplift our situation and those around us. In each and every situation we can choose to be an evolutionary catalyst: through putting out good vibes or inspiration, making someone smile, challenging abusive behavior or dysfunctional ways, or going to help shovel mud from the driveway or garden.  We can each make a positive difference in so many ways and it’s a moment to moment conscious choice.

Very soon, on February 11^th I’m starting a new series of interviews with people who are bringing about positive change and creating new ways of living in their local communities and beyond. We’ll be exploring new economic systems, sustainable ways of living together and the nuts and bolts of creating a resilient new culture. I’ll also be delving more deeply into how we can mine the gold from the heart of crisis, whether that is a personal or a global healing crisis.

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