In case you have no idea what is happening weather-wise in my part of the world (Richmond, Virginia), we have been having thunder, lightening, rain, tornado watches and more rain.
While I was home working on the computer and talking on the phone, the power went out several times. Outside it was raining bucketfuls with raindrops as big as my mama. Well, the drops were not literally as big as my mama, but they were big drops that sounded REALLY loud as they hit the pavement.
Pow! Splat! Pow! Swish! Pow!
You get the idea.
There was so much rain at once that it created big puddles everywhere.
Alyssa was in the shower. Yes, she was showering during a storm. Joan was talking to me on the phone learning to use Gmail when my electricity shut off. Yes, I was talking on the phone during the storm. Obviously Alyssa and I do not follow all the rules of safety during storms.
Anyway, at that point I told Joan about the rain, power outage and tornado watch. She asked, “Aren’t you scared?”
“No,” I said without hesitation because I really wasn’t scared at all. I love storms and have lived through several tornadoes. I told Joan that even though I wasn’t watching the news, I would know if a tornado was close because I would be able to hear it because it sounds like a giant freight train. The sky would also turn a weird green shade.
I turned, looked out the window and saw the “patio lights” shining brightly against the clean green of the grass. The sky was still gray and there was no whirring tornado sounds.
As the rain got heavier, the sky grew more gray and my little patio lights seemed to shine even brighter.
“The rain to the wind said, ‘You push and I’ll pelt.’ They so smote the garden bed. That the flowers actually knelt, And lay lodged — though not dead. I know how the flowers felt.” ~ Robert Frost ~
I’m sure you can relate with that poem by Robert Frost.
I know exactly how it feels to have been smote so hard that I “actually knelt, And lay lodged — though not dead.” It is during those times that I have felt like a shadow or reflection of myself. My “light” often appears and feels dim and almost snuffed out.
When the rain drenches my dreams, I am paralyzed at first from the shock. How I detest this part of my personality! I’m truly not THAT naive, but whenever some big change happens in my life, I’m shocked.
I may not be scared of rain, thunderstorms and tornado watches, but big changes like divorce, moving, death and unemployment knock me down. I become filled with fear of the unknown in my life and future because I have no control of the change.
“It’s all nonsense. It’s only nonsense. I’m not afraid of the rain. I am not afraid of the rain. Oh, oh, God, I wish I wasn’t.” ~ Ernest Hemingway ~
But nothing keeps me down forever and in true redhead spirit as time passes and the shock wears off, reality sinks in and I begin to work on Plan B. One raindrop at a time, I accept the change in my reality, examine the possibilities and then work like crazy to incorporate the change into my life in a positive manner. I can’t control the “opportunities” (I use that word SO LOOSELY) that often occur in my life, but I can control my reaction to the change.
Rain is inevitable.
When it is raining…
You can be miserably wet and complain.
You can put on your raincoat and splash around in the puddles.
You can stay inside and watch the rain as it drips down the outside of the windows.
You can go outside and hide under an umbrella.
The most freeing of actions is you can go outside without a raincoat or umbrella and dance happily in the rain.
The choice is entirely up to you.
As the day wore on and the rain continued, eventually the sun set and darkness fell around my patio lights. I’ve been enjoying the brightness of the little lights all evening and observed their reflection in the puddles on the patio.
The dark always comes before the dawn and when it is the darkest, you have to search for the light of hope.
Right now I’m stuck in the gray, lonely, rainy day and hanging on to the smidgen of hope I still have left.
The one guarantee you have when it pours rain is that eventually the sun will shine again.
It may not shine today or tomorrow or even the next day, but EVENTUALLY the storm will pass, the sky will turn blue and the sun will shine brightly again.
“We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. ~
How wonderfully and beautifully written and uplifting, thank you for sharing and keep safe
Thank you so much! I’m so happy that you enjoyed it. 🙂
When we were talking on the phone and you told me that the raindrops were as big as your mama, I tried to conjure up a picture of a raindrop being as big as your mother. “No way! How could a raindrop be as big as your mother?”
“Well, not really as big as my mama,” Sherry said when she heard that I was taking her quite literally, “but they’re really big.”
“Okay, but they’re not as big as your mother,” I said relieved. I mean, with all the things Sherry had to deal with lately – losing her job, sending out thousands of resumes and no one responding to her plea for work, I thought to myself, “This is really too much. And now Sherry has to deal with raindrops as big as her mama and a tornado on its way.”
“What would you do if the tornado was heading in your direction? Where would you run?”
“Well, there’s nowhere I could run,” Sherry answered.
Yeah, I thought to myself, that was a pretty stupid question. “So, you would just wait for the tornado to hit you?”
“If I heard the tornado, I would pick up Bella, run into the bathroom, hold Bella in my arms and hide in the bathtub until it passed,” Sherry said.
So, that was her plan. Well, at least Sherry had a plan. I was about to ask her, “And what if the tornado lifted your entire neighborhood off the ground and then it went smashing down?” But I thought better of asking Sherry that question. She had enough things to worry about without me adding more drama to her life and having her think about a tornado hitting her neighborhood.
Then suddenly it hit me. For the last couple of years Sherry’s entire life had been like a tornado hit her, lifted her off the ground and then let her go crashing to the ground. Sherry had lived through her PTSD, her father dying, her marriage breaking up and unexpectedly losing her job. Yet, in spite of everything she had been through, she survived.
And I knew then that no matter what happened in Sherry’s life she would always survive. She might cry and rage about it, but in the end she would survive, because the truth is that Sherry is a born survivor.
Now that my mind was at peace Sherry and I could continue with my Gmail lesson, something I had been resisting learning for years. But who better than Sherry to teach me Gmail? I don’t know if you know this, but besides being a born survivor, Sherry is also a born teacher. She can teach anyone anything about social media, websites, the Internet and the computer.
Suddenly an idea formed in my mind. Sherry, did you know that yesterday while you were dealing with raindrops as big as your mama and tornadoes hitting your neighborhood the weather out here was in the nineties. Why live in Richmond, Virginia when you could be living in sunny California? Why don’t you and Bella move out to sunny California?
In my mind I could hear Sherry’s voice saying, “And risk being killed by an earthquake? Thanks, Joan, but no thanks.” 🙂
First Joan, I laughed because that was really funny although mostly true. LOL I guess that is what makes it so funny.
Secondly, I would love to have two homes…one in California and one in Virginia. Then I could enjoy both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans all the time, as well as your great company! 🙂
Last, but not least, thank you for always believing in me even when I don’t have any belief left in myself. {{{hugsss}}}
I love this post. I was taught at an early age that choices make us who we are. However, sometimes life just doesn’t give you a lot of choices. But how we react to them? That’s different.
BTW: Love that you talk on the phone and Alana takes a shower during storms. I do as well.
LOL Crystal! So you don’t heed the thunderstorm warnings either! Nice to know we aren’t the only ones! 🙂
Change is inevitable…even the rain can change mountains, eventually, absolutely. Change is the constant in all our lives. Without it, we stagnate and become less than we were before. Embracing or expecting change could be a step toward it being less of a shock. And when it doesn’t happen, you can feel good about being ready for it. My day is a constant change and I am thrilled with it. Come on over and give it a whirl.
“Embracing” change is going to take me awhile. I really am working on accepting, “finite disappointment” without losing “infinite hope.” Maybe one day I will actually get it down pat. 🙂