Staying in the Eye of the Storm

        The last you heard from me, I was struggling deeply with the loss of my partner. I took a couple months off from the blog so that I could heal properly. Well, today I have decided to share what I have learned from my journey, and, more importantly, how it can apply to the struggles you face in your life, as well. I will spare you the details about my specific stumbling blocks and, instead, try to keep it more general for you. And, as an aside, I do not claim this to be a set of guidelines for overcoming any obstacle. This is just what I have found to be helpful so far in my life.
        
          

The strongest storms that exist on our planet are, of course, hurricanes, and I have found that it helps to think of these monstrosities as an analogous guide for dealing with crises in your life. They often are unpredictable and can cause a great deal of physical and emotional damage. It seems that some people are given plenty of warning about their impending arrival while others who lie outside of the predicted path can suffer if the storm takes a turn. Yet, no matter how much you prepare for it, the truth remains that if you are present in the area when the storm makes landfall, you WILL feel its presence. Sometimes people choose to stay in the chaos because they have too many emotional ties with their home, friends and family while others are just too confident in themselves to allow a mere storm to change their lives. Nonetheless, the storm arrives and the damage is inflicted. The initial blow can leave you reeling, but there is a secret to a hurricane (aka a life crisis) that can be your saving grace. 
          
               At the center of each hurricane is an eye, or a region of relative calmness. For many, it is a dangerous moment of relief when guards are let down such that when the eye passes they are more susceptible to worst of the storm that follows it. However, the eye never disolves as long as the storm is intact. So, to return to the real point I'm trying to make, if you can find something that gives you that calmness in the midst of your storm then you are halfway to finding your ticket out of the suffering. As I mentioned, the eye keeps moving in a hurricane, and much the same way, the only way to maintain your peace of mind is to not stop to dwell on the past or to worry about the future. The only way you can truly make peace with the destruction around you is to keep moving forward and accepting the blows that life has given you. 
         
              The beautiful thing about staying in the eye is that, if you can keep yourself in this area of calmness for as long as possible, then the worst of the storm will have passed and you will be able to go back and collect the pieces of your life when the skies are clearer.
         
              Sometimes lives, jobs, homes, and love is lost during these "storms", and there will always be a scar on the land and in the minds of those affected by it. Yet, there is a beauty in the opportunity to build anew upon fresh ground using the lessons that you learned from your journey. Nothing will ever be the same, but maybe that's how it should be. We can't grow if we stop moving forward, and just remember that no storm lasts forever.