It’s been months since I sent out a newsletter, months since I felt like life was sort of normal. When Hurricane Irene blew through the Northeast it changed my life. In a matter of hours, the rising, chaotic waters washed out the bridge that connects my home and office to the rest of civilization.

Living near a creek has always felt like a blessing. I wake up and fall asleep to the ever present sounds of water, flowing, tumbling, rushing, murmuring. In warm weather I work with the sliding glass doors open in my office and the sounds of water add another level of healing to my work.

But in the hurricane, the water became frightening.Rising higher than I had ever seen it, it rushed by at 40 miles an hour – whole up-rooted trees flying by like twigs. And when the rain stopped, where our sturdy steel and concrete bridge had connected us to the main road, there was only swirling white water and a rising helplessness in the face of that much power.

We are so small in the face of a hurricane sweeping through our lives, whether it is wind and water or tumultuous life changes. But every crisis holds within it the seeds of opportunity, and while as the hurricane whips through, it may seem like disaster, there is also new possibility.
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