On my way to work one morning this week, it started to rain. I always thought the weather had this power to create a mood or change an atmosphere. To me, rain can do that.
As a kid I used to think that because it was raining where I was, it must be raining everywhere. The idea that everything wasn't the same in every place was a little foreign to me.
Rain usually covers a pretty large area, so it was normal to me to think that it must be raining in China, too. Everyone must be having the same weather.
Sometimes it feels like life is raining. Even if it feels that way in only one area of my life, it seems like it could be raining in every area.
If it's raining at my job, maybe it's raining at home too. If it's raining at home, maybe it's raining at school or work.
Just like the weather. When it's bad out, it's hard to imagine that there is good weather anywhere. I can't see it. I can't seem to experience it. It must not be there. It must not exist.
But I know that just isn't true. Sometimes when it rains, it covers a giant area of land that you can't seem to travel out of. Other times, it might just be a small patch of clouds that passes almost immediately, with the sunshine not far behind.
I've always felt that a permanent mindset was never the most beneficial one because it feels too absolute. It feels final. In a world and a life that is always changing, permanence is rare.
This idea that the rain is covering every piece of land forever, is just illogical. It's an illusion.
But we tend to trade logic and composure for the temporary mindset. We decide that whatever we're dealing with right now, will be hampering us forever, everywhere we go.
We think that because it's raining now—it's bad out—we should forget about the weather elsewhere, because right now the sun doesn't even feel like it exists.
But of course that's not true. One of my focuses lately is to not let the rain spread to every place in my life. If I have a bad day in one area, I'm thankful that the other areas are functioning well. And sometimes it does spread to other areas. And I just have to function within the rain. And then I remind myself of something.
In my childhood, when the rain seemed like it was covering every place on the planet, I wanted to be outside. In the thick of it. I viewed it as an opportunity.
It wasn't threatening or worrisome, it was just there, with everything else in life. And I wanted to explore what it had to offer. Maybe I just need a little bit of that childlike spark back.
Bring on the rain
This was an interesting read. I’ve noticed that sometimes its not raining “outside”, its actually raining inside. That’s why it feels like its following us everywhere sometimes. It has been useful to ask myself “why am I making it rain right now?”. Sometimes I make it rain because its more comfortable, more familiar.