The recent floods in the Texas Hill Country have horrified everyone, not least those of us who live in this beautiful part of Texas and feel blessed to do so.
While our community was not hit with the floods that Kerrville and nearby towns were, some community members have been impacted by local flooding, including catastrophic flooding of what are normally pretty little streams…which took out entire neighborhoods as well as bridges along our only connecting road to Austin or points north. We are grateful for the rise in our beloved Lake Travis, which has gone from less than half full to almost full within 10 days. However, at what a dreadful cost. The loss of life – especially the children at summer camps and the families camping or living near the Guadalupe River – is almost too much to conceive. Not to mention the massive destruction and cleanup now underway.
The massive storm system created a series of rain “bombs” than led to flooded rivers and streams, all of which eventually feed into the Highland
Lakes. Decades ago, a system of dams and lake / river management was established to help better control the massive flooding that used to occur, including some destructive floods that impacted Austin. But the so-called “100 year events” or even “1,000 year events” are becoming more like every 5 or 10 year events!
For example, since I moved here in 2008, we’ve experienced at least three serious, multi-year droughts…followed by three extreme weather and flooding events that replenished the lakes and water table. We’ve also experienced a couple of extraordinary winter freezing events, one of which led to over 200 deaths and the near complete breakdown of the Texas electric grid. We’ve had extensive wildfires in our region, and we are in a wildfire threat zone.
My point is, as much as some people want to put their heads in the sand and deny it – climate change is real. AND it’s getting worse. The impact we humans are having on the planet appears to be accelerating. Mother Nature is letting us know.
Mother Nature Ain’t Happy With Us!
What does this have to do with our own Qigong practice and self-cultivation? As our climate changes and we experience increasing extremes of temperature, precipitation, storms, and other weather-related events, we must work to harden and build resilience into our infrastructure, including electric systems, water resources, agriculture and food sources, development controls, and hardening of our cities and communities, to help ensure the sustainability and quality of life of the places we know and love.
Similarly, we will have to work even harder to build our individual resilience and sustainability. As we often discuss in our Qigong classes, we are part of nature and are tied into the seasonal rhythms of Mother Earth. What once were very pronounced seasons of Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall have been changing and morphing into something different. Generally warming temperatures are interspersed with extremes of heat and cold. The energies around us are impacted which, in turn, impacts our own internal energy and how we feel.
For example, we go through several different sets of Five Elements (Wu Xing) Dao Yin and Qigong forms as we progress through the seasons each year. I now struggle sometimes with where winter ends and spring begins, or when summer or late summer end and fall begins. The typical months in which we would focus on a particular element and its related season is less clear these days. So we take out best guess. OR we stick with meteorological dates even though the climate says it’s a different season.
There’s never been a more critical time to take care of yourself and your health. Building resilience is one of the most important investments you can be making now!
You Can Do It!
Dr. Karen