In a moment the water became rough, the waves started to kick up and move everything around. The clouds rolled in and the sky became dark. The water was tossing large vessels like a child flinging toys around the room when frustrated. It was all happening fast. The water started pouring from the sky. The rush of the water like a river flowing, beating down on the trees and ground. One minute it was clear and the next everything was in chaos. The destruction was significant and costly.
The clouds are blown away by the wind and a beautiful blue sky is revealed. The sky was opened up with depth and beauty as if the curtains to the beginning of a show were opened. Then all was calm and peaceful. The air was crisp, clean and clear with a hint of the metallic scent of ions.
Nature does what it does. It is reality and we can communicate our perspective from the view of destruction, devastation or beauty and rebirth.
We may see and experience the same things, but we will always place our perspective on the experience. This realization creates common misunderstanding and in some cases confusion. Lao Tsu would encourage us to embrace whatever nature brings but it is easy to see and feel darkness.
We are all experiencing storms of some form. Just as nature brings beauty, pain, light and darkness, we as human beings through our actions do this to ourselves and others. I remember reading, watching and learning about history and wondering how anyone would allow terrible atrocious actions to happen. How would the good people allow bad things like this? The answer today is clear. Just as we would look up at the sky and believe or perceive that we have no control of the sun, the moon, the stars, the clouds, the air, we feel this way about our political situation, our ability to create change and our ability to impact our world.
You might say that it is irrational to believe that we can control nature but I’ll suggest we already do impact nature. We already have an effect on nature. We already put controls in place but we only acknowledge this after the fact because we can explain it technically to each other. Everything that we can’t explain is impossible or improbable.
Khan ruled 24 million square kilometers, nearly the size of Africa with no modern technology, no radio communications, no modern weapons. Nearly impossible to fathom but he did. Impossible is what exists before it is seen and proven along with common perspective. After all maybe someone would challenge that Khan ruled over the land in 1206 and it was just a story.
Being powerless is an illusion. We have the ability to impact our world. We have the ability to change our lives. We have the ability to do so much more than we believe we do on a day to day basis.
The dam was built, it made a lake. The lake was formed, it was stocked with fish. The fish brought the birds and insects. The new ecosystem was formed. People came to the lake. The lake was used for water consumption, recreation, power and food. A young girl came to the lake on weekends with her father. As she sat overlooking the water, she came up with an idea. Her idea was so powerful it impacted the whole world.
Back in the day, the engineer, the architect and the founder of the dam project, had no idea what impact they would have on the world. They thought they were creating a dam for the purpose of controlling the flow of water into the valley.
We cannot know what our overall impact is on the world. We can know and celebrate what we do know. We can envision a better world and we can create it.
We have agency, we have ability and we have the power.
Make a choice…