“When you
come out of the storm, you won't be the same person who walked in. That's what
this storm's all about.”
~ Haruki Murakami
~ Haruki Murakami
When I
first saw this picture, it affected me on many levels.
Strong
symbolism suggests powerful forces at work between earth and sky…with the ocean
or sea representing the great unconscious mind radiantly illuminated by
cross-currents of electricity passing between the higher cosmos and the land
surface (the super-conscious and the conscious mind).
It
evokes multiple mental images and even stirs some emotions of fear and awe, of
danger and yet witnessing Great Mystery’s jaw-dropping brilliance in super-kinetic
motion. Anyone who has ever been through an electrical storm with minimal
personal protection from it, knows the excitement and uncertainty of where the
next lightning strike may land…near you or not, …always unsure if you will soon
become the lightning rod to charge the air molecules around you in one huge
burst of unbridled energy or just a smoldering cinder left in its wake.
To me,
this picture is a symbol for ENLIGHTENMENT—where the earth-based
vehicle (that’s you and me) is suddenly “illuminated” with total
consciousness—with total awareness—and super-saturated with Divine Light and
energy.
Total
awareness and total destruction are both possible aspects of being “struck by
lightning” through our direct contact with the Divine. It can be that
unbelievably beautiful and that personally devastating at the same time.
So, as Haruki Murakami says, after undergoing such a storm, you will
not be the same person that you were prior to it. Because you will have been
illuminated,….enlightened beyond your immediate comprehension. You will not see
the same or be the same, or think the same, or feel the same,…because
enlightenment is direct connection with something so powerful that our small
earth vessels cannot contain it—it blows our circuits—it fuses us like copper
wire melting during an electrical-current overload.
It forces us to rewire internally: how we think, how we see our lives in relation
to others and to the world around us, how we act and react to the daily dramas,
to facing down our fears and examining our aspirations under a different
context than we had used previously.
When you go through any major storm in life,
you come out the other side with a different attitude and shift in perspective
on “life storms” in general, and it forces reexamination of yourself on how
well you may have handled the situation—what you learned in the process—how perhaps
you could have handled it better; or it may give a deeper appreciation for
simply having survived the devastation. Major life storms can make you re-evaluate
yourself on many levels.
No doubt about it, big storms in life can change
you; and yes, as Haruki Murakami states: that IS what they are meant to do.
But with
actual illumination and enlightenment, you won’t just be “changed” from the
person that you once were, ….you will be recreated
completely. Completely re-worked,
completely re-wired. You will see
with different eyes, and hear in
different ways. You will know that
which you never knew before, and with a certainty—an assuredness—that did not
previously exist. TRUTH is ever present, wherever you go, whatever you do,
whomever you encounter. You will know TRUTH, like you’ve never felt it before
the storm.
And you will immediately recognize that you
are NOT the same person walking out of it, as the one who had walked in. You’ve
evolved.
