It can be so hard to find love in our hearts, to imagine peace, to practice compassion, to have faith in a benevolent universe after terrible things happen. But for as long as we hold on to anger and fear, we add to the darkness in our own hearts and in the world.

"Fatigue" turned out to be the perfect word for what many people were beginning to feel after a few years of hyperconnectivity, information overload and always-on living.

It is interesting how a time of apparent scarcity brings about awareness. We may feel the strain of the power outages and the lack of convenience in our lives, but in being disconnected from our daily routines, we are actually more connected than ever before.

Mother Nature has done it again. She slapped us upside the head to knock some sense into us. There is devastation for many. Nothing makes sense for them yet, but for most of us, we've been slapped into awareness.