Anticipation

Artwork by Tu-2. Sitting at the Center

Waiting for the next thing to happen.  The heavens are about to return with the gift of water, and the ferocity of the excess.  Atmospheric rivers, storm bombs, flooding are part of the reason why people across the country are on edge.  

On the west coast, in particular, the reports of what is to come are creating a kind of activity that suggests there is anticipation of more physical damage in communities that felt the impact last week.   That's what the media is channeling to the readers and listeners.  The respite between downpours has created the chance for a small reset to take place.  There is the natural desire to clean up, even knowing the mess will likely be back in short order.  There is the preparation for providing transport to help residents who may become stranded.  Centers will be open for overnight refuge for those who will lose their power, or maybe even their homes - all are getting ready.  And the post-storm preparations also are being made now as well.  There will be the costs to share, insurance claims to process, contractors to locate and bring to the work of rebuilding.  

The anticipation of what is to come is also making it necessary to consider the human impact of predicted, but uncontrollable conditions.  The effect seems to be a heightened degree of anxiety about possible disaster, and awareness of options that will be available in the event of the weather getting beyond the capacity of the preparations that have been made.  It is in the anticipation (not the reality of now) that opens space for fear, doubt, and distress to grow.  For some, anxiety about the predicted weather has resulted in going shopping for more food and other supplies.  For others, it has been to ensure a generator is at the ready and drainage is clear, for still others, it is making sure that a route to evacuate is open in the event a quick departure is needed.  Everyone seems to be in anticipatory and preparatory mode.

For now, the skies are not yet open and the showers have not arrived.  But one can't help but notice that the trees look clean and happy to have received the rain.   The oceans are roaring and waves are crashing in a way that hasn't happened for quite some time.  Buildings look like they have been showered and sparkle in the brief sunlight that has shone.  In short, the heavens have sent yet another message to humanity.  That message doesn't come from the calculating mind that has a particular point to make.  It is just a message - not good nor bad, not seeking nor directing.  The message, without words, is just making it possible for awareness to be brought to conditions that are affecting our reality and relations.  What relations?  The relations between human beings and the natural world, the very relations that are the essence of the ability for human existence to go on, into the future.

Part of all relationships is the quality of anticipating what will happen next.  When will the next move be made?  What is one's own part in deepening the relationship, keeping it healthy, and making it possible for insight to come from the encounter?  

This seems to be a time in which the anticipation of the next rainfall has opened the chance for each of us to practice centering while waiting.  It is a time of anticipating and at the same time, preparing for the possibility that the relationship to nature can be nurtured into greater insight about how to live, how to care for one another, how to be in the world that is changing in every possible way. What could come from this experience of anticipation, now and in the future?