Flying Your True Colors (A Hurricane Post)

In the middle of a crisis, a person's true colors tend to fly for all the world to see.  It is very difficult to hide a gut reaction and the way that you deal with what is happening around you.  During and in the time since Hurricane Sandy made its way through the northeast, this has been very true of the people around us - perhaps even yourself.  How did you react? How are you still dealing?

 

 

Did you leave the comfort of your own home to work in a shelter and help others?  After you lost power, did you make your way all the way to somewhere with power just you could post "power outages are lame!" on facebook, or did you stay home and laugh your way through Farside comics with a flashlight?  Did you take the time to do things with your family, or did you complain about not being able to watch television?  Did you get so violent at a gas station attendant when they ran out of gas that they had to call the cops on you, or were you so polite to them in the midst of the chaos that they thanked you for being so nice?

 

If you still had hot water, did you invite others to use your home to take a shower?  Did you lend your generator away the second you no longer needed it yourself?  Did you go online to let others know that you still had power and everything was great but then never offered assistance to anyone?  Did you give money when you found yourself too physically far away to do anything else to help, or were you busy taking delight in the idea of the Northeast being swept away by a natural disaster?  When you found out that someone's home was destroyed, did you open your home to them or pay for a motel room for them to stay in?  Did you find yourself without a home and focus on being grateful for the help of others and for the simple fact that you are still alive?

 

All of these situations are about real people and real moments that have happened in the past week.  You might have even recognized yourself in there.  Are you proud of what you did, or are you hoping that no one will remember the person you really are?  It's in these moments when you really see who you are and who the people around you are.  These are some of the teaching moments of our lives.  Times like these fortunately come few and far between for most of us.  It is up to you to take what you learned in these teaching moments and apply them to yourself in your everyday, so that the next time a crisis comes along, you can be happy with the person you really are.