We are seeing widespread destruction courtesy of Hurricane Sandy. A physical storm devastates the emotional landscape. Only the spirit can look on without great trembling.

Vernon Howard gave a talk once about a town with a shaky bridge. In it, he said that our psychic structures need shaking, so we can see what needs to be rebuilt on more solid ground. There is a lesson in everything.

Our private devastations seem unimportant but they are not. They arrive in the form of disease, divorce, rape, murder; in short, a catalog of all human sufferings.

In another talk, Vernon said that as you climb the mountain of God, ask Him to pour on the lightning strikes. “More, give me more,” should be one’s shout.

The hard way becomes the easy way. The easy way becomes the hard way.

I have spent much of this lifetime in emotional devastation. I have climbed many mountains where the lightning strikes knocked me down time and time again.

In Daughter of Fire, Irina Tweedie says this, “And a journey which has no return is always terrifying. The personality is afraid, because it knows that the “I” will go, that it has to go.” There comes a time in our life when we have to burn all the bridges behind us, or they are burned for us, which is the same thing. Because the little self will be afraid, it will put up a terrific fight for its life.”

As we watch the nonstop reporting of Sandy’s destructive path, let us take hope in our own inner powers of witnessing. Life goes on. I heard from BB this morning that she had been dreaming of singing with Taylor Swift. “That’s funny,” I wrote back, “I dreamt that I was going to do a tap dancing routine with my old class. I struggled to fit into a tight red costume.”

The show must go on.