Harmonizing Forces

In no particular order . . . . 

(Ed Note: That's bullshit - as an INTJ control freak everything I do is in a very particular order . . . )

I'm particularly proud of my community today.  We have endured a tough, brutal week with amazing patience and grace.  I am proud of the way people have rallied around and supported each, approaching all of the destruction with patience and equanimity and a big dose of black humor.

One of my friends - who lost everything - leaned over and whispered: "Well, my wife wanted to remodel our kitchen anyway."  I've got great friends.

I'm going to assume that most communities would pull together in such circumstances but I've only got boots on the ground here - I know what we're doing for each other.  And not just in The Fellowship, either - I check on people I know casually from the club or from my coffee shop, even random people I bump into, and they're checking up on me.  It is indeed therapeutic to talk about what we're feeling and this has been an anxiety-full week.  Burdens need to be unloaded.

Another friend whose house was right in the middle of The Shit, responding to my question as to whether he was now safe: "Yeah, not too much left to burn around here."

I am particularly proud to be in The Fellowship.  If you have something crappy going on it's a great place to tie up your boat.  I've gotten more strength being around people who lost a lot than they've gotten from me.  We do a really great job of allowing people to unburden themselves without letting them drift too far into self-pity.

Balance:  A state in which opposing forces harmonize.

I am a man who loves extremes.  My tendency when painful things happen is either to pretend that nothing is amiss or to scream bloody murder.  Neither of these techniques is productive.  I get to bitch a little and I get to abide a little but I damn well better not take up residence in either place because someone who knows me a little too well is going to point out the error of my ways, and maybe not too subtly.

"You're still talking about that?"  Baldweenie, fed up with some extended rant I was on.

I have tried to do a lot of listening mixed in with a lot of refraining.  My sense of humor, the sharing of my experience, strength, and hope, is usually tinged with an edge, a sharp edge.  I get away with it because the people I abuse know I love them and because I can take it in equal measure.  Whale away, it's all good.  But this week I've tried to listen more and talk less.  It's one thing to say This Too Shall Pass or Pain Is The Touchstone of All Spiritual Growth when someone is arguing with their wife or having a work resentment - another altogether when everything you own got burned up.

The Slogans are generally great but I can make them really sound shitty.  :)