On Earth Day we had a small earthquake. Mother Earth reminding us that she is alive and well.  Then, a couple of days later we had a slightly larger one that made the cupboards rattle and the doors shake. Prior to that, we had a smaller one about a month earlier. 

That all adds up to three earthquakes in a short period of time. 

Now, I know I should have expected this as we did move to Southern California, directly on top of the San Andreas fault line, which also happens to be one of the most active faults in the world, but still, I have to say I was surprised.  We had managed to go an entire year with no earthquakes, not even a tremble or a bump. And, if we did have one, it was so small that we didn’t notice.  But now we have had three in a row, and I am starting to pay attention.

Do you ever do that? 

Perk up and pay closer attention if something keeps showing up over and over again in your life?  Maybe it is a saying or a word?  Maybe a song that seems to be on the radio every time you get in the car?  A certain color that just seems to be more prominent in your vision all of the sudden?  Water pouring in from all the wrong places?  Just one of those things that seems to be happening so consecutively that eventually you just have to ask yourself,

okay, what’s up with this?

We have a saying in our house that if something happens three times you need to start paying attention and asking yourself what is the message, what is it that needs your attention?  I have found that many people have this same practice.  Probably because the universe has an interesting way of getting us to listen, and sometimes it takes repetition before we finally stop what we are doing, perk up our ears and tune in. 

  Some people call these holy coincidences.  I like to think of them as holy disruptions.  The things that get us out of our normal routine.  They break up the places where we have become too comfortable and complacent.  They can be subtle and gentle, or loud and rowdy.  They usually come when we have settled into habits; when we have become accustomed to going through our daily schedule with mufflers on our ears and sunglasses on our eyes.  Dulled to the beauty and numbed to the mystery that surrounds us all the time. 

These holy disturbances offer us an invitation to listen more deeply and to see more clearly. 

And let me tell you, three earthquakes in quick succession can do just that, so after the third one, I spent some time asking myself some questions. 

There were the normal, practical ones like, do we have the right supplies, do we have the large furniture attached to the walls, do we have a safety plan in place, how do you turn off the gas and water valves? 

But there were also the soul questions.  

I wondered about what might be calling for my attention, what invitation the earth-shaking could be offering.  I asked if there was something that I needed to be awakened to? Wondered about where had I become too comfortable? 

In all of my wonderings, I happened to think back to another earthquake I experienced years ago.

My husband and I were visiting friends in Los Angeles and had spent the night in sleeping bags on their floor.  In the middle of the night, a large 7.3 magnitude earthquake hit and we both had the sensation of feeling the floor roll under our backs.  I remember being both scared to death at the rumbling and shaking, and in complete awe that a cement floor and wooden substructure could actually roll like a wave of water.  That it could become so flexible when it was made of hard, unbending materials. 

And there, in that memory, was my invitation,

my holy discomfort uncovered. 

I thought about how sometimes we get so set in our ways, so comfortable, that we run the risk of being stiff and unbending.  We forget how to be nimble.  We forget how to grow. 

The earthquakes made me uncomfortable, and I needed to be made uncomfortable.  I need to be reminded to wake up and pay attention.  To ask where I had become too rigid in my life, to search out the areas that needed to be stretched so that they could bend more, be more fluid and forgiving. Well, and attach the large furniture to the walls.

The earthquakes reminded me of the power and mystery that this world holds.  What an amazing and terrifying thought, that in an instant, entire mountains can be reshaped and formed anew.  What else could be born from that energy?  Entire new ways of possibility exist in just that thought. 

So, what earth is moving for you right now?  What holy disturbance is beckoning at your doorstep?  What mountains are waiting to be reshaped and reformed in your life? 

Is it worth getting a little bit uncomfortable to find out? 

I think so, don’t you?