Sometimes I try to search for the positives in the face of tragedy. The recent hurricanes, earthquakes, and aftershocks could just be Mother Nature's way of bringing us together. One thing is clear, she certainly has a way of reminding us who is boss. She owns this land. She is in control of what's going on down here. We like to think that we are in control ... from the U.S. to China to Europe and so on. We actually think that this land belongs to us. It doesn't. Man has been fighting over land, property, blocks, turfs for longer than all of us have been around. It's something I'll never understand, quite frankly.

There are a lot of unfortunate things happening in the world ... alarmingly insane politics, the longest war ever, gut-wrenching greed, poverty and the violence stemming from that poverty, in-your-face homelessness so common that many barely even acknowledge it. (Breathe. It's a lot.) Then along comes Mama Nature ... forcing us to get reacquainted with her power, empowering us to channel our inner humanity, making us rescue people we don't like from their homes, making us wade through waste-high water side-by-side with people who have different political or religious beliefs, destroying our homes and forcing us to live together for 24 hours a day in a shelter.

Mother Nature has a way of bringing people together when they least expected, reminding us that we all bleed, eat, bathe the same way. She'll make us shock ourselves into humanity. You know, since that's what we're supposed to be doing down here anyway - humanitizing. (Nope, not a word, but it'll be one for the purposes of this post.) She'll even make us question her power and know that some will actually believe they are more powerful or can somehow come up with a work-around her power. She knows that some will think they can withstand 150 - 200 mph winds accompanied by 15 feet of water. Man is so overjoyed with himself because he's built some amazing things; therefore, he has the audacity to push his chest out to her. Well, Mama Nature is sending a direct message that no matter what kind of beautiful building or home man builds, she can take it down faster than it takes him to gloat about it.

With Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Jose, Kitia, Maria, and an earthquake with multiple aftershocks, (most of this within a span of a couple of weeks), Mother Nature just told us all to shut the hell up and go sit down. She basically said none of this belongs to you, I'm just letting you borrow it. Further, if you don't take care of it and you keep acting the way you are, I will shut it all down. At least, that's what I'd like to think she said.

All I know for sure is, Mother Nature is awfully chatty these days. The question is, are we listening?