How would I tell the story about Hurricane Irene if I were a reporter and standing in exquisite sufficiency? In our consumer culture, news is crafted to sell and entertain as much as it is to inform. While listening to the hurricane reports I heard:

Reeling Devastated Washed away Damaged "It's not worsening but it's not getting better."

Language is power. There is what happened, that a hurricane swept over the Northeast and caused measurable damage and effected many people. And there is how we talk about it that creates our relationship to what happened. The effect the words above have on my body, my mood, and my relationship to life itself are feelings of overwhelm, loss and weakness.

In contrast, I heard a version of the story from a friend in Vermont, one of the areas that was deeply affected by the storm. She talked about losing beloved covered bridges and flooded buildings, and also about the gatherings of people coming to help, free food being distributed, communities coming together for support, and vacationers volunteering to help. She reflected on an overall mood that left her feeling ok. I would say she was standing in the sufficiency - the what is-ness - of a situation labeled a tragedy.

There is way to speak about a story - to ourselves and others - that allows us to hold the tragedy inside of the sufficiency that is actually present in how people respond to life's challenges.

Life is full of storms and we have a choice about how we want to be in them. The manner in which we face those challenges will offer the opportunity for us to develop resilience and faith or for us to harden and turn our hearts to stone. This is true personally and collectively.

How the story is told matters. The language used to describe events around the globe for anyone not directly affected will either cultivate our faith and resilience or perpetuate our belief that the challenging events of life are catastrophic and we have no power in the face of them.

As listeners, we can bring this awareness and ask: What would be possible - personally, interpersonally and collectively - if we stood in sufficiency when listening to the news?

Having heard both sides of the story, I can see and hold the exquisite sufficiency present in the face of what appears like tremendous scarcity.