The Gift of the Storm: the Power of Personal Pain to Heal

Stormy sea with seagull
Stormy sea with seagull, by Eugene Amus (1834-1899), oil on panel, 25×40,5 cm. Italy, 19th century. (Photo by DeAgostini/Getty Images)

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The other night I went for a late night walk by the water as the sky filled with an oncoming storm. Waves reached up onto the sand like teeth gnawing at the bone of the land. All was desolate; there was not another soul to be found. The power of the wind took my breath away and lifted me out of my daily world. Suddenly everything that I knew seemed distant and the vast waters wanted to claim me, as if I were one of their very own.

As I walked I felt the pain of my separation from warmth, from light, from the bright comfort of day. But I let my pace quicken and my lungs hungrily suck the wet air in a kind of surrender to the experience, an awareness of a natural power much greater than the small thoughts of a limited mind.

There is no force beyond that which rules the wind, the sky, the water. There is no place for me outside of this world. I must find my way in it, of it, through the honoring of my own wild darkness, my own fears and fierce truth. The journey of dust to dust is truly a liberation of our essential energy, a realignment with the magnificent nature of the unbridled soul.

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I wandered long that night, unwilling to return to the mundane world of my busy life. I relished the chance to become lost in that darkness and there discover myself whole. This is the picture of a healing path. It is the way we are asked to walk with our deepest troubles, the thoughts which break our hearts, the fears which take hold within the gut, the nameless anxieties, the frustrations and inertia, the cycles of limitation and unfulfillment which chase us around and around like a dog seeking its own tail.

I realized in the kiss of the storm I had found a metaphor for my life purpose. I know this darkness. I know the suffering. I know the smallness that we feel as frail human beings in the face of our natural terror, loss, and denial of self. It is this knowledge which I believe is my greatest gift, which empowers me to serve and bring comfort to those less familiar with their own stormy walk, those who feel lost and unsure of a way home. There is nothing that I love more than to take the hand of one who struggles here and show them that they are safe, even as the clouds boil over their heads, even as the wind takes their breath away, even when it seems they are utterly alone in the world.

In fact I know that there is no other way than this. Those who seek only to live in sunshine will miss the power of the extraordinary beauty of the night. Those who prefer to deny the storm may spend their lives in shelter, never knowing how it feels to trust the vast reaches of experience and find safety anywhere they roam.

We watch the weather of our planet and we worry that the signs of imbalance and distraction are upon us. But what if even this, even these times were a part of a larger perfection? What if our choice to stay in trust and dedication to truth was the most powerful act we could choose as we transmute together into a re-born and holy world?

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Every act of spiritual courage lifts us up into realms we have never known before and so we must never give up, never turn away from the endless possibilities to find beauty and grace beneath our feet, above our heads and in the hands we extend in  love.

Through my intuited connection to our ever-present Divine guidance, it is my life’s work to share the perfection and beauty of the Self that is the truth of you. This loving presence never goes away, never lets us down, never ceases to amaze, and the Guides hold answers for any question, any heartache, any illusive dream.

Let me support you in walking this same profound journey within your life. Let me help you recognize these truths as they alight right before you, within your grasp. There is no challenge too great, grief too deep, fear too large. It is all one astonishing, gorgeous storm. And the gift that awaits is the absolute freedom of a new and sparkling dawn, one that could never have been birthed without the rains of the night before.

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