Yes, the second 100-year storm in one year made it wicked in oh...so many ways, and it required a terrific sense of humor, a lot of patience, outward thinking and endless help from so many.

So we trudged through a week with no electric, no heat, no gas, no hot food and few places to get some, along with one perfectly Murphy timed dead car, desperately needing a new starter with nowhere to get it repaired, or even anyone that would tow it, and a rental car that was given to me with no gas and no place to get gas, along with continued stories of neighbors being wiped out in one way or another. May I also say cold weather is immobilizing, especially when it's indoors and in your own house.

Please understand that demanding conditions that are difficult for healthy folks are doubly ominous for those who are elderly, and particularly those struggling with serious health challenges. Sometimes I think the reason our ancestors died younger was simply because it was just easier to do so.

Two houses down from me live Joan with her husband Ed. Wonderful, generous folks living in a small Tudor lake house built in 1926. Joan's husband has some very serious life-threatening health challenges, and a cold; dimly candle lit home with only a smoky fireplace for warmth and a lot of long johns is really, in my mind, bordering on suffering.

So Joan took matters into her own hands. With what looked like individually handwritten invitations done with a magic marker, Joan delivered the invitation to the entire neighborhood. She called it a "Pity Party" on this Day Six following the great 100-year storm.

So we packed up some munchies and libations, a massage chair, and a guitar and went over to Joan and Ed's house to raise our spirits and of course support our neighborhood. Like all of us, Joan and Ed were clearly rocked by this ordeal, but they thought about the welfare and sanity of their neighbors and I believe set up the circumstances for a little creative magic.

It's usually by thinking outward that Grace Happens. Initially there were only five of us that arrived early. Ya know it's pretty obvious when people are having difficulties and I remember my teacher, the great meditation master Hilda Charlton, telling us repeatedly that those who devote their lives to serving and uplifting others will receive wonder and grace, that what you reap is after all what you sow, and that every action does have an equal and opposite reaction.

With these simple maxims of life, Hilda would invoke both the spiritual Law of Karma and Sir Issac Newton's Third Law of Physics. Personally I've seen this simple truth work my entire life. So there I was emoting about our very difficult circumstance in my friend's simple, cold house and decided to propose a toast.

We lifted our hot mulled ciders, and instead of a happy and positive affirmation, I started ranting at God in my own way, "Enough is enough, this has got to stop right now! We have had enough!"

Then suddenly there was an explosion outside and THE POWER CAME BACK ON!

As the tears came to our eyes, along with high fives and hugs all around, Joanie kept looking at me, as if I was Jesus or something, and I simply looked her straight in the eyes and said, "It had nothing to do with me Joan, this was all about you! This was your doing, you set this whole thing in motion by thinking outward."

What I learned from the entire ordeal:

You can build your spiritual and emotional foundation on solid bedrock by practicing what I call the Basics. The spiritual basics encompass your daily practice. By that I mean the very basics; eating really, really well every day as in a plant based diet, consistently taking your vitamins, regularly making exercise an important part of your life, developing the discipline to meditate every day, and finally programming yourself to live positively, affirming nothing but optimism.

Brainwash yourself; let them all think you're crazy, living in a SQUASH BLOSSOM POSITIVE fantasy world. You know they called Jack LaLanne crazy too. Keep your eye focused on the spiritual path and remember it doesn't mean didly who you were in a past life or what psychic mumbo jumbo you can do; the hardest things to live are the basics.

• DON'T GIVE AWAY YOUR POWER.
• HOLD YOUR CENTER ESPECIALLY IN THE MIDST OF CHAOS.
• BE A MASTER SOUL! Raise the bar.
• TRY TO BE GENEROUS, PATIENT AND COMPASSIONATE AT ALL TIMES.
• FEED PEOPLE.
• LOVE WITH YOUR WHOLE HEART AND SOUL.

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