Dear Tom:
We all experience storms in our lives. After a tragic storm, we often say, “ life is not fair. I don’t deserve this,” and engage in a good dose of self-pity. Then we begin picking up the pieces left after the storm. This task can be daunting, depressing, and debilitating. Often our first reaction is to try and replace everything and to return to the same circumstances pre-storm. Everyone chimes in, “What are you going to do, how are you going to replace all that is lost.” Sometimes the aftershock can be more difficult to experience than the original storm and also be more dangerous.
I have certainly reacted this way after other storms in my life. I desperately tried to duplicate the life I had before the storm. I did not undergo an analysis of what I really needed to restore. This time I am taking a different tack, and I have found it is a much better way to react. I am picking up only what I need and leaving the rest behind. I repeat the words of Ruth St. Denis who once wrote, “I stand willingly in the way of storms, that all my dead leaves may swirl away and be lost.” Hopefully I can discern the difference between the limbs that will bear fruit, and those that need to be discarded.
Your Friend,
Webb
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