Finding Sunshine Above the Storm Clouds: Lessons from the Floods

#image_titleTwo weeks ago I sat helplessly watching my partner from our security cameras as the flood waters came closer and closer to our house. I was in Sydney and he was on his own at our property in N Qld disconnecting anything electrical that could go under (we did temporarily lose our septic system), cleaning debris out of our back fence so we wouldn\’t lose it and trying to secure our shed to limit the amount of water that was running into it. He worked non stop for 7 hours.

The floods came right up to, but not in our house, thankfully.

On the way home that night (I barely made it over the creek crossing to our road before the creek cut us off for the better part of the weekend), I flew over the clouds and was struck by how lovely and sunny it was above the clouds knowing what was happening beneath them.

The next day my partner, David and I spent the entire day placing what we could in the house and shed above potential flooding. We also prepared a bug out bag and took one of our cars to higher ground.

And yesterday I saw the sun for the first time in 12 days yesterday. This after 16 days of rain totalling 1150 mm / 45 inches. My neighbour recorded 200 mm and 8 inches more from his manual gauge, btw.

There is so much going on in the world these days and many people I know are quite fearful, despondent and fatigued. This experience has reminded me that:

🔹 There are always bright sunny skies above the clouds

🔹 Rain storms (and hard times) can\’t last forever

🔹 Do the best you can during the deluge. Help where you can but take care of yourself and be gentle with yourself if you experience strong emotions

🔹 As we used to say in Wisconsin, \”Make hay while the sun shines\”

Today I feel much more hopeful, energetic and optimistic than I have in over 2 weeks.

Note: the planter boxes you see are 2/3 under water in this picture. But my fruit trees have LOVED it!