Calm Within the Storm

This past Saturday, I went with a group of people for a botany trip up to the alpine zone in the mountains north of Silverton, Colorado.  Eight of us met in Durango and we picked up one more in Silverton.  Our destination was a place called Placer Gulch, which is an ancient volcanic caldera high above the tree line.  The road required 4 wheel drive vehicles and took us past many abandoned gold and silver mines, ghost towns and tailing piles.  At the high point, we were at 12,700’ in elevation.  Some very unique plants grow in this area, so the long bumpy ride was well worth the trouble. 

On Friday, that general area had gotten a lot of rain, and there was a 60% chance of rain predicted for Saturday.  During monsoon season, strong storms with lightening can pop up at any time in the higher elevations, and one always has to be watchful and prepared for that as it can get very dangerous very quickly.  Everyone had their rain gear with them, but there is no way that you can keep completely dry under those circumstances.  It’s also a real bummer trying to look at plants, let alone photograph them, when it is raining on you! 

I thought, what the heck, I’d use the occasion to practice my weather bending skills.  The night before the trip, I started by intending that our area of study stay dry while we were there.  Since I had never been to that location, it was impossible to visualize it, so at that point, a strong intent had to do.  Once we got up there, I just got calm and centered, expanded my core essence to be as big as the area where we were, and then saw it as a dome over us.  This was our dry zone.  Now, I do not know if it was coincidence or not, but we had perfect weather with some clouds, and only a slight breeze. 

This dry zone dome had to be re-expanded and reinforced several times that day, which does take some energy.  That is why I do not recommend that people use protections around themselves on a routine basis.  They use up energy that one could be using for something else, and are not fool proof. 

We did have one big snafu on the way back.  I was in the second car with 3 other people, and the lead car had the person that needed to be dropped off back in Silverton.  Our group leader thanked everyone for coming, and then sped off ahead of us.  We lost sight of that car, but did pass them parked at the drop off location.  There was a momentary discussion in our car about stopping too, but as far as we were concerned, the trip had concluded, and we were free to drive back to Durango to our individual cars and then head for home. 

Well----it turned out that that the people in the other car were waiting for us at the Silverton drop off location, and didn’t see us drive by.  They waited an hour and decided that we had had a flat tire on the mountain road, and then went back to look for us!  Imagine what was going on amongst the 4 of them between waiting that hour, driving up and back the mountain road, and then proceeding back down to Durango.  One man in our car waited at our Durango meeting location for 1 ½ hours, as his wife was in the delayed car.  Another man in our car stayed for a bit to keep him company.  I found out later that at least one person in our car had said that he’d see everyone at the Silverton drop off point to say goodbye, but didn’t say anything about that as we drove past it.  Miscommunications all around, I’d say.

So why did I get home at a reasonable hour, smooth as silk with not a problem, when everyone else including the other 3 in our car had some sort of major or minor delay?  I will admit that when we drove past the other car in Silverton, I had brief thoughts of “Maybe we should stop”, “Are they waiting for us?”, or “Does someone need to use the bathroom before we drive the remaining hour back to Durango?”  At the same time, I also got the internal message that everything was as it should be, everything had been taken care of and to just let it be.  It was interesting to observe myself wrestling briefly with interfering with the supposed prearranged arrangements or taking charge assuming that someone was doing something wrong and I had to fix it.  I chose instead to be the calm within the storm.

As it turned out, I did exactly the right thing as everyone else involved got to learn the lessons that they needed to learn about clear communications and making assumptions.  You cannot save someone from themselves, as they will just have to face the lesson again at another time and perhaps in another form.  Some might also say that you generate negative karma for yourself by saving another from experiencing their lessons.  That would mean that you gather to yourself something that you would then have to deal with later.  In general, we all have enough to deal with that is ours alone without adding to it!