COLORADO FIRES – Tragedy or Triumph?

Since I was just in Colorado, and there are fires going on there, I thought I’d talk a bit about that. The fires that raged through Colorado certainly give those who live here an up close and personal look at the interplay of the five elements and how quickly things change when one element dominates at a particular moment in time.

For those of you who have read my book or know a bit about feng shui, there are several “cycles of elements.” In the creative cycle, wood “fuels” the fire (Page 36, 37) and fire creates earth. The trees and brush are being consumed by the fire. The ashes fall and add to the earth. Page 41 depicts how each element “destroys” another. Water douses fire. Metal chops wood. Lack of water in the air and within the vegetation allow for the possibility of an access of fire. (And then there’s that invisible energy WIND, that adds to the power of an element by moving it rapidly…think hurricane and dust storm as well as the fires here!) The fire personnel use water to douse the fire and metal axes and shovels to chop the wood so it has less of a chance to fuel the fire.

The fact is we are a tiny part of this big blue marble called earth. We belong to it, we don’t own it. See the fires as Mother Nature’s message to enjoy what we have when we have it, and her reminder that everything on earth is always and forever changing and that it is perfect in the big picture.

If you have lost your home to this fire or any other way and are currently in a victim mentality, my advice is to try to change your perspective and attitude. Yes, there is a type of “mourning,” or at least the sense of it that should be honored. A tiny, mini version of this is felt when one simply de-clutters and let’s go of stuff. Removing stuff from your life in the physical world mimics the removal in the psychological world as well. And if you’ve been stripped, there is no doubt you have such feelings and will remember this event for the rest of your life.

I will try to console you by saying that many of my clients who have previously labeled a tragedy or event as “the worst moment of their lives” later recant to say it actually was the best thing that ever happened to them (and I include myself in this bunch).

If you are a parent and find yourself in the situation of having “grieving” kids, perhaps you can learn from this family that I knew of that lost everything…(especially since I heard that people were concerned about looting with this fire.)

This family that I know was robbed — “Grinch-style.” They took everything, and I mean EVERYTHING! It simply looked like the family moved. When the family returned, everyone looked upon this event with their own perspective. The mom picked herself up by her boot straps and got to a place of “Yea! I get all new stuff!” But the 6 year-old daughter decided right then and there that she was never going to be caught off guard like this again! She started hoarding candy (her current most valuable commodity); hiding it away wherever she could. Flash to thirty years later. The mom is “over it,” and lives a clean and de-cluttered life. The daughter still hoards and collects, and never throws anything away. The daughter still to this day buys bags of candy and stuffs them all throughout her house (and NEVER eats a bit!) It drives her mother crazy whenever she goes over to her daughter’s house! It was the same event, but the perspective taken was very different.

So, watch what meaning you assign to these types of events, and hopefully, you can help your kids through it better than this mom above. Find a way (for yourself and your children) to mark this event as simply a moment in time that you will get through, and that it just may be a blessing in disguise that you’ll laugh about later. Don’t overlook the possibility of professional help (for your kids or yourself) if you can’t get out of negative thought patterns because this is a “sooner is better than later” thing. (Or let me know and I’ll be happy to do some “Feng Shui Your Mindset” coaching around it.)

Life is a series of ever-changing events. It’s our perspective, and how we label those events that creates our reality. Choose your perspective wisely.