I’m sure you’ve heard by now (if you didn’t experience it for yourself) that there was a 5.8 earthquake on Tuesday in Mineral, Virginia that was felt along the East Coast. Its effects reached from North Carolina all the way up to Canada.
When the earthquake hit, I was sitting on my couch in my living room with a bad attitude. I had just gotten home about 20 minutes prior and was quite irritated after a visit with a relative. My mood was totally soured, and I was looking out the window feeling horrible when the floor beneath my feet started to shake. Immediately, I knew it was an earthquake. What else would rumble under the earth?
I yelled in the kitchen to ask my mom if she could feel it. She couldn’t hear me over the running water, so I told her to turn the water off (this was serious and she needed to hear me right away) and asked again if she could feel it. Just then, everything got CRAZY. The rumbling became a terrible shake that moved the entire building! All I remember is sitting on that couch, looking at the window frame thinking the walls were going to cave in! It was THE most terrifying feeling I have ever had in my life. In that split second, I truly believed that the building was going to fall. All I could think was how were we going to get out in time.
Then we heard my neighbor in the hallway and ran out to see her. My mom grabbed on the railing and it was STILL shaking. We then ran outside and my mom talked to other people to find out if they felt it too. My neighbors and I knew it was an earthquake. My mom, on the other hand, had to be convinced by people who were not in our building, because earthquakes like that just don’t happen in DC!
All of the safety, security and solid ground we’re used to was demolished within seconds. Most people may think DC isn’t so safe and secure due to terrorist attacks and threats. But this area is one of the most safe places to be when it comes to natural disasters. There are no hurricanes, tornadoes, OR EARTHQUAKES here. (I guess I need to change that statement to say, they’re not common.) We usually just get the extra rain or strong winds as a result of disasters elsewhere. They are not very destructive here compared to the damage caused in the target areas.
So as much as the West Coasters may want to make fun of us for overreacting – yes, we were freaked out, and rightly so! Just because one group of people is used to standing on shaky ground doesn’t mean we all should just brush it off our shoulders like it was nothing. Luckily there were no injuries. But several buildings have been damaged and people have even been displaced from their homes indefinitely because their buildings were considered condemned by the damage. We obviously are NOT prepared for those conditions here!
Speaking of shaky ground, that earthquake shook me right out of my bad attitude! There was literally nothing left to be pissed about when all I could think of was how incredibly scary that experience was. Knowing that the home that I automatically expect to protect and provide for me was in jeopardy of not only falling down but falling on me, really shook me awake!
I started to feel awful about how bad my attitude had been. When I’m mad about any one thing, my negative thoughts usually spread like a virus, contaminating everything I think about. So my mind had gone a little wild while I was sitting on the couch and had me feeling very unstable and shaky within. I started to feel unsure of everything, which I’m noticing usually happens when I’m trying to step out of my comfort zone and do something big. When I’m feeling positive and in a good mood, everything is ago, no matter how big. But as soon as one thing goes wrong, I can’t find a good thought about anything. This is why I am so adamant about staying positive. I have a lot to do in my life! So I don’t have time for all this nonsense.
That’s another reason I was so scared by the earthquake. I have a lot of living to do yet, and although I know that I will not be the one determining my last breath, I would personally like to petition for a few more, just so I can live out my dream life first! I seriously plan to experience my fantasy and I’m on a mission to make that come true! I don’t have time to be stopped in my tracks by some tragic natural disaster.
With that said, I will NOT spend another minute STUCK in a bad mood. At the end of the day I realized how blessed I really am. No matter how scared I was, I was able to end my day in an environment where I’m unconditionally loved, safe, secure, and comfortable. God continues to bless me, even though I sometimes take advantage of his many blessings. For that, I am forever grateful.
I am more committed now to treasure every day as a gift and live my life to the fullest as often as possible. I am certainly not saving all my time and energy for when my dream life appears. I am working everyday to bring it into my right now reality, so abundant living is NOW.
And just in case you were thinking it, yes, even people who teach abundant living and put it all over their websites need reminders (in the form of literally being shaken up) to commit even more to positive thinking, love even harder, and live life with even more passion and fervor than ever before.
By the way, here is the only effect the earthquake had on my apartment:
A simple photo album fell down. I took this picture for two reasons. One as proof of how blessed I am. I saw pictures of people’s homes on the news who had a lot more damage than that – broken dishes, pictures, even chimneys. I also took it as a reminder of how real that whole experience was. For someone like me, whose only ever felt small tremors of an earthquake under my feet (a few years ago when I was on the Big Island in Hawaii), experiencing that 5.8 earthquake was huge. The fact that something (anything) fell over in my home because the whole building moved is a huge reminder to treasure every single moment, because you just never know…
Share your thoughts in the comments: Where were you when you felt the East Coast earthquake? How did it effect you?
Peace, Love, & Life,
~Alexis~
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