A Different Kind of Storm

A storm is coming so we all need to prepare

Do what you can to care for yourself and your loved ones

Ask for help, offer help

Seek medicine, use medicine, be the medicine

Storms allow us an opportunity to cleanse and wash away what can no longer survive within us or around us

They are messy and sometimes dangerous, but always essential

We can dread the storm, curse it and resent it - or we can see it for what it is, a release of energy, a cleanse, an opportunity

Whenever I prepare for a storm, it makes me feel an overwhelming sense of love and gratitude for those who have walked with me and continue to do so

Those who stand by me and support me throughout the many storms we face because, like me they recognize the cleanse is needed

Not everything will make it to the other side of a storm, we must learn to let those things go

What remains is meant for us, to appreciate and love with all our hearts.

If you're still walking with me, I want to thank you

I thank you for loving me for all the things I can do and all the things you believe I can do

I thank you for helping me prepare for and weather many storms

I owe you one

I owe you many

But even in the storms, we must carry on, fight back or find a way through to the other side

It may be unexpected, it may be daunting but if we go forward with a good heart we can make it

My commitment to you is that I will continue to be a light when it feels so dark

I will continue to let caring, sharing and kindness be my anchor when the world is a storm

And because of what I've lived, I must respond in kind….but with kindness

I only know how to fight fire with fire, force with force

But my actions and the energy I bring forward will not be violent, we will be nurturing

We will be loving and generous and humble and loud and unyielding and cleansing and healing

And I will love

I will love and give and care so hard I will be the storm

A different kind of storm