Shifting Weather Patterns

I often find myself noticing a constant mirroring of my internal world to my external world.  It is a “truth” I seem to have had some awareness for all my life… that often or maybe even always, my internal world is a reflection of my external world. Lately I have come to know the reverse was well. It works both ways like the waves of an ocean seamlessly blending into each other. The more I pay attention, the more I notice that my external world is also a reflection of my internal world.  It’s like a delicately orchestrated dance…each blending into the other…with no beginnings or endings. I often notice these reflections so this will not be the only time I write about this topic!

Today, it is the weather that has caught my attention. Having just returned from a month long trip, the weather was a constant delight and challenge for my body to get accustomed to.  We went visiting places where there was extreme heat, extreme cold (especially for the summer), to extreme humidity, wind etc.  My body had a lot to deal with not knowing exactly where it was going to find itself from day to day. Being back home is nice and acclimatizing to home again will take a few more days but at least here at home I know what type of weather to expect in July …sort of…

My own internal weather patterns seem to have hijacked my attention today. I read something this evening that really struck a place deep within me as if some alarm were going off internally for me to pay attention. Here’s what I read from my friend Elizabeth’s site http://www.sealedwithlove.com/ where you can play around with some very inspirational tools she has in her Oracles section:

“.. notice the elements around and within you. Notice the storms brewing, the tears and rain, your connection to the earth and the earthquakes within, maybe the tornados as you whisk to and from work or through your life. Notice how the weather affects your being. Being aware helps you to be prepared.”

All day I have been aware of this internal stiffness, this feeling of unrest and tension and almost brooding as if all my insides are bracing for an expected storm that is on the horizon.  It seems that my body’s been paying more attention to the weather reports than I have because I am clearly caught off guard.  My mind refuses to deal with what “just is” at the moment. It wants to go back on vacation.  All too often I do the same, if it’s too hot, I long for cooler weather. If it’s too cold I long for warmer weather. There is always a longing for something else other than what’s here right now.  I think we do that with our internal weather as well. If we are feeling sad, we long to feel happier. If we have everything to be happy about, we still choose to pay attention to the minor things that are making us not happy.  We are masters at training our awareness to notice everything that makes unhappy that we miss all the weather signals both internally and externally.  We ignore or simply turn off the warning systems.  We numb out and choose to not notice the subtle shifts.

So, this evening I am pausing to sit with these messages. It feels very unsettling to just observe without judging.  Most of us wake up every morning listening to someone else’s opinion or judgment about the weather forecast for the day. We allow someone else tell us to brace ourselves for a wet day when in fact we just might enjoy dancing in the rain if we were left to form our own opinion by experiencing first. So, although I could use words like empty, listless, sad and so on to describe what I am feeling in this moment, I have been jolted awake by some very inspiring words to notice, and just be with these shifting states …they too might be trying to get my attention to something brewing.