Eliza: On Earthquakes, Inner and Outer
I woke up this morning feeling a tightness in the “gut” or region of the solar plexus, beneath the diaphragm. Yes, I’ve had some extra tension at work as a result of taking on a supervisory position, but I knew that this wasn’t a personal feeling. Something was going on in the world. A short survey of some news sources was all it took; there had been a large earthquake in the Los Angeles area.
Having lived in earthquake prone areas nearly all my life, I’m not frightened by the prospect of experiencing one. I was born and lived most of my childhood within miles of the San Andreas Fault. Yet when I lived there, we had no earthquakes. Likewise, my family lived in Anchorage, Alaska, in the late 1950’s. Again, we experienced a few very mild earthquakes, nothing to be frightened about.
Of course, Anchorage suffered a huge earthquake in 1963, not long after we left the area. The earthquake impacted coastlines well to the south of the Alaska, including sending tsunami waters onto the shore at Crescent City, California, thousands of miles away.
Then, the Bay Area suffered through a series of quakes after I left that area. The only large earthquake that I have personally experienced was the Nisqually Quake in 2001, which damaged parts of Olympia, the capital city of Washington State. I felt the earthquake when I was in the midst of studying. There was a series of shaking jerks and then the sensation of rolling waves moving through the earth beneath the floor of my apartment. There was no visible damage where I lived; just a couple of pieces fell to the carpeted floor unbroken. However, in Olympia, a major arterial was blocked when the bridge and causeway was heavily damaged. In Seattle, the facades of older brick buildings broke off and smashed onto the sidewalk below. That part of town was built over dirt fill and is susceptible to earth movement.
Where I live now, Walla Walla, located in Eastern Washington, is reputed to lie over another fault line that runs from Rattlesnake Mountain, parallel to the Yakima River. I have not seen any maps that refer to it, but have been told that from time to time, the area has received some small quakes.
It is certainly good to be cognizant of the physical risk-factors present in your environment. The recent occurrence of a huge landslide in the small fishing village of Oso, Washington, is a case in fact. Geologists have long known the existence of the active slide area, yet houses were built within the slide zone. Some of the newer homeowners were probably enticed to the area, which is beautiful, quiet and rural, surrounded on both sides by steep ridges and forested slopes. The North Fork Stillaguamish River runs through the valley, oft swollen with snow-melt or rain waters as the area receiving a great deal of rain as compared to Seattle. I have hiked in the mountains on both sides of the valley. The presence of the Cascades acts a rain-catcher, with the lush valleys receiving in upwards to 90 inches of precipitation annually and perhaps more depending on the year. We do not get the same amount of landfall here, in Eastern Washington, and the land lies over deep layers of volcanic strata, solid rock.
Landslides are a given in an area once covered by huge continental glaciers as was the Puget Sound Region. There are large areas covered by unconsolidated glacial till, made up of clay, silt, sand, gravel and sometimes, very large boulders, called erratics. It doesn’t take much imagination to realize the potential impact of large quantities of rain falling on such a landscape. It is a wonder that more destructive landslides don’t occur. They are common enough in a smaller scale, blocking roads or railroads, plunging into houses situated at the base of steep hillsides. Clear-cut timber extraction doesn’t help the situation, either, such as occurred in the 1960’s through 1990’s in these regions, until the loggers ran out of prime logs and the timber companies began to sell their property to developers.
I grew up with an engineer father who always pointed out things in the environment to his children, such as the height of a railway bed in comparison with the land around it. He interpreted the sight as meaning the potential of flooding in the area. We drove often across the causeway that crossed the designated flood plain near Sacramento. However, I understand that some of those lands were eventually build on during the real estate boom. My own grandmother’s house was often subjected to local floods, which caused mold to grow in the basement. The main story was built above the level of potential floods by the sturdy descendants of Portuguese fishermen who settled in the area of the East Bay.
We also experienced a small landslide in our own backyard as I was growing up. Fortunately, the house was not affected, only a retaining wall at the base of the hill. My father had it replaced with concrete block retainer. Still, three or more houses just down the block were knocked completely off their foundations by another part of the slide. The apparent cause was poor drainage and engineering done prior to the houses being built. While California is often sunny, people forget that when it rains there, it can be quite torrential. The development planning did not take into consideration how a large amount of water coming down in a short amount of time would affect the hydraulics and stability of the slope. It was quite a mess but fortunately no one was hurt by the slide, although there was considerable property damage.
Sharing these memories and experiences has assisted in moving some of the nervous energies out of my body. I know that I have always been interested in geography and geology; in another life I might well have been a cartographer. I used to drag out topographic maps and study them even as a child. When I took up hiking and backpacking as a young adult, I would often have arguments or lively discussions with veteran outdoors people (mostly males) as I had an intuitive understanding of how to relate a flat two-dimensional map to the actual environment. Most times I was right. The only time that I got “lost” in the woods, a temporary condition, it was due to some confusion over vague trails located in the Chiwaukum Mountains, a beautiful sub-range of the Cascades. We had an adventure and lived to tell the tale.
Not sure why I am sharing this, only that I deeply love and relate to our planet, beloved Gaia. I love her mountains, streams, forests, meadows, grasslands and skies. I feel her distress when people abuse her environment and long to see the time when the air, water and land is free from pollution and poisons. I feel the distress and fear of her people, especially those who have lost their ties with the earth, who do not understand the cycles of life, but attempt to impose controls over the land and the creatures who live upon it.
I find delight in finding wildflowers growing on the side of a rugged, stony ridge or sheltered beneath a towering tree. Nature is my guide, my solace and, in part, what keeps me here, assisting those who do not understand what is going on, as we move into the finer vibratory levels of the Fifth Dimension.
I guess I am in a rather pensive mood this morning. It has been a somewhat stressful week at work for me. Yet, at the same time I have moved through a doorway into new experiences. I passed through some self-imposed barriers that have long prevented me from expressing just how I felt about things. I had no trouble at all speaking quite bluntly and honestly of my feelings and experiences to the manager of the department. He was surprised and pleased with my boldness; we are developing a mutual respect for each other which will assist me as I take up duties as a supervisor.
I realize that I have much to learn with dealing with people, but I am aware and eager to learn. Just how I manage to survive the experience is still up in the air, but survive I will, especially now that I have some useful tools to help me move out lower energies.
Challenge is the name of the game when it comes to being an initiate on the Path of Return. If you are not willing to step up and face the challenges, you will simply stagnate. There is no point in moaning or groaning or feeling sorry about your predicament. And thus speaks the former warrior!
Powerful energies have been moving through me, as my higher essences moves in and integrates into my being. Occasionally it feels like I am riding a wild bronco and at other moments, the energies calm and settle down like the deep waters of a swiftly moving stream. The movement is apparent; I feel it at all times. Now, I just need to assist my human consciousness to open to the possibility of changes, huge changes coming into my life. Step by step, breath by breathe… and spending lots of time writing, creating, walking in nature, gardening and alone.
I am also so thankful for the growing number of people who have sought me out through Facebook, email and writing comments on Blue Dragon. I have felt a strong connection with many of these people. We are truly weaving together a network of light through our connection on the Internet. I am truly grateful that one such friend encouraged me to begin a blog and to share my insights and experiences with others.
As we live out our lives here, we are an example to each other, whether it is as what not to do or what to exemplify. I hope that I am doing the latter. I have no children to inherit my goods, but I do have young people with whom I can share the wisdom gathered from many timelines, who will do much greater works than I in their stead. And thus do go the cycles of life for all of us.
May many blessings attend your path and angels give you peace and understanding, even in your darkest moments of self-doubt. Reach out and share yourself courageously with others as they will surely see themselves reflected in your words.
I AM Eliza, your sister in light and love.
All Rights Reserved, Elizabeth Ayres Escher and http://www.bluedragonjournal.com
Photo – (www.nwhikers.net) Lake Ida, a lake I once stumbled upon when “lost” in the mountains…
