As the Spirit Moves Me
by Pam Burns-Clair

Tsunami Surival Kit

March 21, 2006

I awakened from a dramatic dream last night about a tsunami I found myself and my family residing right in the middle of.  From our house in a valley, or maybe on an island surrounded by water—not sure, looking back at it—I watched an enormous wave slosh to one side, peaking at the tips of the hills on the horizon…then sloshing our way—I expected to be engulfed as I watched, terrified and small, as it swept towards us, but instead it either swept over or past us, leaving us in tact inside our dwelling—my youngest daughter unaware inside the house.  (She always has been in her own world!) We watched it slosh back and forth with mighty force several times from the relative safety of our abode.  It was awesome — I felt hugely relieved as this powerful wave subsided and we were spared.

I felt awestruck as I awakened and reflected on the meaning of this dream.  I do feel surrounded by drama: a virtual uncle lost a quick battle to cancer yesterday I learned from my mom who called, choked up…several friends and clients await diagnosis of or are dealing with serious health problems… another just lost her father to a quick battle with cancer… another may be facing a relationship break up… I also caught a segment on 60 Minutes on Sunday of this administration’s cover up of scientific research clearly indicating that global warming is seriously underway and we should be taking serious precautions to reverse the impact our reckless use of fossil fuels is having on the global climate. How maddening!  But what to do with this information?  Dispel the fear in a dream, maybe?

I read a passage last night from Joan Borysenko to my women’s group on grace.  “Raise your sails to grace,” it suggested.  How?  Through faith and surrender.

So I guess I may have practiced it in my dream.  At some level I didn’t freak out—I just observed and surrendered my fate to what might come next…and sure enough…we were OK!  Spared!  We could still cohabitate with Nature, even though she was much greater than us!

So here I go into the day…into spring, soggy as it seems…faith and surrender sort of tucked in my pocket…feeling smaller than any of these challenges all around me, but trusting grace will show up as needed and surrender will help me accept that which I cannot change.  Seems to me there’s a prayer that goes like that:

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

P.S.As grace would have it--a couple hours after I submitted this article, I 'stumbled' across a ditty on the NBC11 news of something called a Terra Pass that can be purchased by consumers for $30-80, depending on how much of a gas guzzler your car is, that funds efforts to curb carbon dioxide pollution (what I've been wishing the government would offer incentives to major oil companies to do)--check out:   http://www.terrapass.com/   & check out FAQ link fulla info from which the following partial description of how the program works is copy/pasted: