It’s a beautiful clear morning here today, and I was happy to see the sun rising over the mountains of Jost Van Dyke. It allowed me to confirm that the sun is headed back in the other direction now. It’s gone as far North as it will go …“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.”
~ Dale Carnegie
And just as the sky has cleared, so has much of that angst I’ve been experiencing. Life is truly a river. It ebbs and flows, often without much of our own “doing”.
Yesterday, as I was looking for that quote by Rilke, I opened my personal guidebook from 2009, which is when I first came across it. Opening this guidebook is always a very powerful exercise for me. It allows me to see where I’ve been, and how far I’ve come along the path. Inside my guidebook are one page business plans, budgets, to do lists, and my daily schedules. In the front section, however, are pieces of inspiration from that year: Photos, quotes, articles.
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms or books that are written in a very foreign language. Do not search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer ….”
~ Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
“Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor.”
~ Alexis Carrel
Out marched Chantal, and in marches the Sahara dust that was part of her demise, and hopefully the next series of waves coming off of Africa. It is one hazy day! And I can tell already that it is going to be a hot one !!!
Over the past few days, I’ve been noticing a steady, low level angst within myself. I sat with it for some time yesterday afternoon. Tropical storm season often prompts this, but usually, through yoga, I can work that angst through my system. Gabby’s still not back to her normal self. She’s acting weird, trembling and weak. There is this intuition telling me that something is the matter. It has me troubled. But what else?
“To the wrongs that need resistance, To the right that needs assistance, To the future in the distance, Give yourselves.”
~ Carrie Chapman Catt
I began tracking tropical storms in 1995, the year of our devastating Hurricane Marilyn, which came on the footsteps of Hurricane Luis. 1995 saw 21 named storms, and this year 2013, has the same naming sequence (outside of those names that have been retired). ’95 had a Chantal as well, which formed on July 12.
My friend & weatherman Dave McDermott called this Chantal “defiant!!” “And a warning shot across our bow this season.” She didn’t leave even a drop of rain as of yet here on St. Thomas, but she has our defenses up early. Which is a good thing.
“It’s not a terrible thing that we feel fear when faced with the unknown. It is part of being alive, something we all share.”
~ Pema Chodron
Red skies in the morning, sailors take warning. Today, we are under a Tropical Storm watch; however, with all things considered, TS Chantel should pass 100+ miles to our south. “All things considered”. The fortunate part of this storm is that it is moving very quickly, so there is little chance for her to make what we call “a wobble”. And the rules of storm warfare that I was given say that if a storm crosses the Caribbean island chain south of Guadeloupe (the island that looks like a butterfly), we are “safe”. Which it will …