Personally, our city water system is still not restored but we have power (after a few days) and internet (after two weeks) and we are warm and well fed as we move into freezing temperatures here in the mountains of Western NC. We are blessed.

My beloved town of Asheville, NC, is devastated and still in shock and grappling with grief and recovery on so many fronts. There’s been loss of life, loss of homes and businesses, loss of livelihoods, loss of entire bodies of work, loss of trust (in God, Nature, Water, Government, Systems, etc.).

My recent musings:

• How do we die to our expectations of permanence?
• How do we lean into the cycles of destruction within and around us?
• We know these things theoretically yet when there’s an opportunity to practice in reality, we resist.
• There is no permanence. There is no certainty. There is no security
• None of us are alone in being undone!

There have also been gains. Healing of relationships, community strengthening, coalitions formed, people pitching in, gatherings of support, friends helping friends and strangers helping strangers. 1000 thank you’s to folks who have donated and sent care packages and reached out and offered support. To the individuals and businesses who have offered free services and goods and housing and support. It is truly an outpouring. It is sustaining us all. If you’re still interested in donating please see my Facebook post for options. This is going to be a very long road to recovery, please give what you can. 

My attention and energy has been going towards the question of ‘how can we help as many people as possible as efficiently as possible with trauma recovery?’ To that end, I’m working on a couple of initiatives:

1. Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE) was founded by a man named David Berceli who figured out a secular, non-invasive, do-it-yourself, accessible way to fatigue the muscles in the body to initiate the shaking response, which moves tension and trauma out of the tissues. I’m working with some local TRE practitioners and a couple of coordinators to get regular online and in person TRE sessions available for folks to learn this technique.
2. Peer to Peer Support, from my perspective, this is the best (and maybe only) approach for our situation. Because of the huge need, we can’t rely on a top down or expert only support for people who are struggling with shock and grief. We need to equip folks with some basics and encourage people to support each other. My background in Reevaluation Counseling for 30+ years is the radical foundation on which I pull. 

If you’ve ever rolled out similar initiatives on a large scale, please be in touch. Would love your advice and input as we navigate the long road towards integration and recovery here. If you are a healer and want to offer support to folks here, please sign up here.

“Deep in the wintry parts of our minds, we know that there is no such thing as a work-free transformation. We know that we will have to burn to the ground in one way or another, and then sit right in the ashes of who we once thought we were and go on from there.” — Clarissa Pinkola Estés

Something amazing must be ready to be birthed out of this destruction. There can be no other way to see this. This region is truly emergent and LIT UP. Resilience is not forged in times of ease. We find out who we are when hard things happen and we get through them together.