Katrina

DREAM:
For the last two nights, my dreams have been full of black people. Downright crowded in fact. I have no impression of a "plot" or any particular activity. Mostly they are just sitting around, or mingling in groups. There may be a sense of "reunions" occuring. I can only speculate that these are people who have died in the hurricane or its aftermath. I am not a "character" in these dreams, I am just "there." So I don't know if I am just observing this because the astral is "busier" than usual, or if I am there to help in some way....

THOUGHTS:
I WANT to help, and I feel mostly frustrated. I feel the paradox of personally living on the edge, paycheck to paycheck, financially extremely vulnerable, and wondering where the money will come from to move and to pay for the higher rent that seems will be inevitable. And yet I am aware that I have wealth beyond measure compared to the loss and deprivation that plagues 90% of the world's population. I have a job. I have a car. I have a computer. I have an education. And I have an obscene amount of "stuff." I can give away my used clothes and other goods, but these items are not wanted by the relief agencies. Money is the best and most helpful donation in times of disaster. Do I eat nothing but rice for a week, and donate the money I've saved? Will that make me feel better? Do I beseech the family to spend no money on Christmas presents this year?

My heart (and eyes) are overflowing today. Being intellectually centered, my emotions are slow to be engaged. But once they are -- it is a bit like the levee breaking. I have expected this, so it is good. Emotion suppressed only leads to illness. I've listened to a lot of anger coming from all quarters, not just the victims. People in my various online groups are quick to point fingers and place the blame on the government, whether local, state, or federal. Others turn around and say how foolish were those who stayed, as if they could have made other choices. Still others rant about global warming and use the disaster to flog our global conscience. My sensitive nature has absorbed all that and personalized it. I am part of this flawed society. There is so much need out there. It overwhelms me.

I have been to church, and I have been berated from the pulpit to do my Christian "duty." Perhaps there are those who need the social justice wake-up call. For myself, I only wanted to feel connected to the spiritual community, and to learn of ways to contribute something besides money. But the only organized activity was check writing. It only served to emphasize my own inability to contribute much of anything. Only my tears, as a witness to the pain and suffering of the world around me.

Before church, I emailed a woman who has done some channeling for us in the private group. I described my dreams about all the black people and asked "I am very curious about what has been going on the last two nights. If you have a chance could you please ask Michael? I'd really like to know if I'm there for a reason, am I just observing, or is it just dreams, or what is going on?" I didn't expect a reply so soon, but here it is, and I am comforted.

CHANNELING:

Laurel, you have found as many have this week that you are truly connected with the other fragments presently extant as well as discarnate. You, indeed, are One. As such you feel the collective grief and sway from the energy of many fragments departing at once. You feel this and expect to feel this as you also identify yourself with the spiritual community. Indeed, you are a part of this community as well as the broader consciousness of a grieving country. The dreams you identify have to do with your expectations as well as the reality of your awareness of newly-discarnate souls. In other words, you expected to see and feel this and indeed you have, but that does not discount its validity, both for you and for the larger reality you operate in.

As far as your role in this, we would say at this time that this is your way of feeling connected with a global event and there is no other part for you to play other than to observe and feel what comes up for you through this experience of observation.

We would say also at this time that there is not so much a pattern to look for in these events, nor is there a “reason” for them. They simply Are. In other words, these acts of nature if you will are simply that and do not signify a larger pattern or series of events that holds meaning for the human race. What it does mean, however, and what can be learned from these experiences, are not so much in them themselves but instead in how one reacts to them. Humans in the larger sense may receive much gratification and growth from responding to such widespread disaster, whether by direct volunteerism, sending money or energy, or simply by being quiet within and reflecting on the occurrence.

You would do well to remember the after-effects of the destruction of the Twin Towers buildings and what that meant to the country and to the world. We do not mean to say that a natural event such as a hurricane bears any resemblance to an act of terrorism, but in reviewing the coming-together of humanity after either such an event, there are similarities that bear study and reflection.

Go then and reflect, each of you, and bear witness to the power not only of destruction but the larger powers of hope and wisdom and love.

Go in peace.

I will bear witness, indeed. And I will take comfort in knowing that there is value in holding all of these things in my heart and mind.