Shifting Views

by Dale A. Evans

Revisiting Katrina

In 2005, we generated Hurricane Katrina hitting the gulf coast. Now, three years later, we are doing so again…
This is what I wrote in the aftermath:

These types of mass events rarely evoke any strong emotional response for me. My friend Kat, who came north to visit just before Hurricane Katrina hit, may have lost everything she owned and I still haven’t gotten emotional about it. I easily express trust in these mass creations. I know everything is alright, despite its appearance.

My perception of it is my perception of it. The happening of all these events is generated by energy I’m expressing. So more than looking at any of these events, I’m looking at me, what I’m doing, which is much movement presently.

I perceive these events as choices, choices that are beneficial. They may be traumatic, but they are the perfect method to get the jobs done, so to speak.

I can say that having spent most of my life generating trauma, people feeling sorry for me never did me a lick of good. In fact, it helped encourage and support my feelings of helplessness and powerlessness. When people offer me pity, I know I’m expressing victim. Being a victim isn’t bad or wrong, but it’s unpleasant to me.

When these sort of traumas occur, I see a lot of shoulds being expressed. What we should do, what we should have done. And I automatically begin to compare myself to these expectations, these expectations that are reflections of my un-acceptance of myself. I think everybody should do whatever they want in these situations, but I caution people to pay attention to what they are actually doing, actually expressing within energy. The camouflages of helpfulness are plenty and it can be pretty easy to perpetuate things that one is wanting to stop.

Up until now, my son has had no interest in Katrina. Just last night he said he was going to make a donation. I watched him totally alter his perception. Now he is very much enjoying himself, being the dramatic bleeding heart. It’s fun for him.

I’ve been looking at what major expression is being expressed in this event. I can make a long lists of beliefs I’m addressing to, but so far have not identified the actual energy I’m expressing. Maybe because it isn’t just one.

I also don’t listen to the news so what I know is from word of mouth. I do know that the people dying in hospitals stood out to me and I saw it as one of my last ‘shrines of safety’ crumbling apart. In my perception, I could pretty much guarantee that I’d be safe in a hospital (forgoing all my medical ineptitude and mistake beliefs). But, I’m not safe anywhere, except when I am expressing it. I think that’s one of the points I’m bringing home to myself — I create it all.

Another belief I see playing out is that it seems more honorable to give to strangers and have it be seen and acknowledged by others than to simply be a giving person all the time. I notice the very different expressions of energy in those two expressions.

I did not choose a hurricane in my physical proximity, but I’m still participating. I am participating in my own manner. I find it best to pay attention to that than concern myself with how others are creating.

In addition, in the aftermath, I see the energy of wanting to hold onto this creation, projecting it into the future, not allowing it to pass or move through easily. In most cases, expecting the worst, preparing for the worst, wanting that to happen so that I can be right about my speculations. I predict gas prices are going to be astronomical and it will take a very long time to rebuild, forgetting prices will be as I choose and rebuilding will be done when I allow it to BE.

I also see a lot of blame being expressed. Blame that authority figures didn’t dictate in a timely fashion, and then blame that they didn’t dictate correctly. No one taking responsibility for their choices; someone else was supposed to tell us what to do. And the overlooking of the more than 80% of people that had made their own choice to evacuate. A reflection of not acknowledging myself, my accomplishments, my power.

I hear people saying some couldn’t leave, they were victims. Well, in my perception, in my shifty perception, if I was choosing to experience a hurricane I too would camouflage it with being a victim. In my perception, the mass hasn’t shifted enough yet to where people can feel comfortable acknowledging their choice to play victim, nor even objectively acknowledge it as a choice to themselves.

I am getting very, very much out of this creation and I trust, I really trust, that those who chose to engage more directly are doing so too.

Elias says that I, “incorporate a natural expression of energy in which [my] responsiveness to another individual that may be generating a similar type of energy with themselves would be to be comforting and expressing a gentleness and a supportiveness of them,…” That’s one thing I am doing.

Another aspect of this for me is that my attention is focused on being excited about what I am creating. Just now I heard a little NPR excerpt about the people in Pass Christian, Mississippi, who experienced both Camille and Katrina. They were talking about how the spirit of the people is still intact and that spirit will be what makes them rebuild again. I can feel that energy. And I feel it as a choice. Ah, the challenge of overcoming obstacles, natural disasters, whatever you want to call it! Such a strong and passionate energy expression. What better way to physically manifest it than with a hurricane…

I also see value fulfillment. I see the rescue workers, the press, the charities, all very excited, excited about what they’re doing! I see people excited about telling their tales. I see people excited about their sympathy.

It seems we tend to only focus on the so-called victims and neglect to see how we’re all involved. I’m excited about writing about it. My son is excited about donating. My friend Kat is excited about saying she lives in NOLA and doesn’t know whether her apartment is still there or not. And, because she was here and not in New Orleans, she got to spend time with her mother during her final days. We are all very present.

Dale A Evans is a Personal Reality Coach at It All Begins Now.