We know it’s coming, but we don’t know what.

Yesterday, just after noon, the BC River Forecast Centre upgraded their High Streamflow Advisory to a Flood Watch for the South Coast, including Sea-to-Sky (including areas around Squamish, Whistler and Pemberton.) Also, affected are Sunshine Coast, Howe Sound, North Shore Mountains and Lower Mainland including areas along the Fraser Valley and areas around Hope.

So, some rain. Some significant amounts of rain. And what then? And what of this? I have been pondering this today, thinking, oh I’ll just post a warning note. But I was already feeling hyper vigilant and mildly on edge all day yesterday and Wednesday, with atmospheric rivers showing up as hot spots in the forecast. And I don’t know that being in that super-aroused state is very helpful. I couldn’t get anything done, I couldn’t find my zen, I felt like half my brain was offline, paused, waiting… for the hammer to drop.

In my inbox, today, this headline: “Gratitude Vibrates at 540hz, higher than Love!” Helen Knight, the author shares this (and it’s unsourced, so do your own research if you want to go deeper):

Everything is energy and everything holds a frequency, even emotions. To give you an idea, on the frequency scale that David Hawkins came up with, shame is 20, guilt is 30 compared to gratitude at a whopping 540, on par with joy! It holds a higher frequency than love that comes in at 500 megahertz!

I’m not sure how this works, but for the sake of a thought experiment, let’s go with it.

I google, what is the vibrational frequency of fear? “Researchers found that brainwave frequency of fear is four cycles per second, or 4 hertz.”

No wonder I felt foggy-headed and dull… That’s practically being asleep. Can I power up my cognitive capacities by operating out of gratitude, instead of fear?

I wonder.

I know, as we approach an unknown, but likely soggy, weather window that:

• I am immensely grateful for a warm home without leaks
• I am immensely grateful for the efforts of the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District and their Protective Services/emergency management team for advocating and liaising on behalf of this community for the Reid Road mudslide repair work
• I am grateful that the Pemberton Valley Dyking District and Lil’wat Nation advocated collectively, along with many residents, for the blocked culverts on Grandmother Slough in Mt Currie to be cleared.
• I am grateful for the water cycle, and that water keeps moving through states of being, from vapour, to liquid, to snow and ice, and from mountain top to ocean, and that this reminds me that no matter how huge the storm, it will pass and everything will keep on moving.
• I am grateful for friends who send texts and emails with random notes, or photos or “thinking of you” messages
• I am grateful that, when I went and walked the creek behind my house this morning thinking too many thoughts, it felt as though the creek said back, “you’re only confused because you’re listening to too many things.” It felt like a beautiful invitation to block a few channels and just tune my signal into one song. At a time.
• I am grateful that there are so many phenomenal humans in this community that we live in and I am constantly, obliviously, the beneficiary of their efforts – smart local grocers who know that people will want mason jars in August and extra toilet paper before a big storm and gingerbread ingredients in November; doctors and nurses and medical technicians who are good listeners; volunteers who spend their evenings training to be rescuers and fire fighters and then answer the call for help when it goes up; people who start threads on the Community Forum saying ‘hey, if you need something, why not post it here and maybe someone who has that can help you out.’

I could keep going, and I will, because I like vibing with gratitude more than I like vibrating with pre-disaster anxiety… but things might get more specific and personal and you don’t need to read my list when you can just start your own.

This weekend’s precipitation is forecast to arrive mid-day on Saturday, and brings with it warmer temps and a greater risk that current snowpack will be melted. (There is potential for flows to reach 10-year to 50-year levels (or higher)– likely occurring Sunday or Monday. Squamish might receive up to 120 mm of rain.) This will be followed by a third atmospheric river on Tuesday…

I’m grateful to have a heads-up about this, to be able to choose not to head out on the highway, for Gore-tex and good books and a partner who makes a great fire.

So, watch the waterways, watch your blood pressure, and watch out for your neighbours over the coming days.

Sign up for the Emergency Alert notification service from the Village of Pemberton, or the SLRD. That way, if things are requiring urgent attention, you’ll be called/emailed/texted an update. And in the meantime, work on that vibe.