Sunny and Raining

An interesting phenomena occured today on the way to work that reminded me of how one’s attitude from day to day can be crucial in living a life of happiness or despair. Today on the way to work, it was sunny and raining at the same time. I needed sunglasses and a waterproof jacket to be comfortable.

I’ve witnessed this in Vermont, where the changing weather of Fall is quite similar to that of Portland, all the time. I remember stopping several times on a motorcycle ride to change into and out of my rain suit and put on and off my sunglasses. After a few stops, I decided to just leave both on and realized there’s nothing you can do about crazy weather, except be prepared and ride through it.

I’ve realized that during almost all of my life, it’s been sunny and raining almost the whole time. In fact, it’s probably been sunny more often than raining, but inevitably, it rains. A little or a lot, the rain is inevitable, and essential. Without the rain, we would not be able to live, nor would we appreciate the sunny days as much as we do. I’ve accepted the rain, and driven through it so that I could appreciate the sunny days ahead.

Even on the sunny days, it’s hard to escape the memories of the cloudy, wet ones. You know they’re coming, you know they could come at any time. In fact, always in the back of my mind is the thought that a serious storm is on the horizon, more than one storm, actually. And the more I learn about the earth and human existence, the more storms loom on our personal horizon.

With all of the rainy days, rainy memories and looming storms we know are coming, how can we even enjoy the few breaks of sun we get here?

I’ve decided to not only make the most of the bright sunny days, but screw the storms, the wet weather, and ignore the looming rain to live as consistently content as possible through it all. The hard part is that other people’s attitudes frequently get in the way. See, not everyone feels the same way. Not everyone driving the same roads as me is feeling the sun through the clouds.

So the trick is to manage not only my own attitude towards the constantly changing weather, but to manage my interactions with other people to either avoid the negative or take advantage of the positive ways they live through the sun and rain. One hard part is that we never really know what’s the right way to look at things and what’s the wrong way. And the parameters we set for ourselves are constantly morphing. What we know about the causes of weather, good and bad, is always changing, and threatens to trash the old laws with new insights. Are we ready to learn and accept?

Obviously, the more we can understand about what makes good and bad weather happen, the better we can live with it over time. But this also means having the presence and willingness of mind to understand and accept the insights that come from experience and science. It also means being open to change and adapting to the new laws of the weather. There may be more sunny days ahead, but there may be some serious storms to get through as well. The one constant in the weather here is change, and as we all know, it’s impossible to predict the weather every time, so another constant is the unknown. Fear of change and fear of the unknown are two major mind-lockers.

We’ve chosen to live in a place where the weather is wet most of the year. We’ve been warned, and we’ve felt it’s wrath. It takes a special person to live through this weather. It takes a person who looks ahead for brighter days. It takes a person who accepts the unknown and looks forward to adapting to whatever wetness lies ahead. What it takes is knowing that when it’s sunny, be happy its not raining. And when it’s raining, look forward sunnier days ahead. But when it’s sunny and raining at the same time, that’s when you realize all you can do is grab some sunglasses, don your rain suit, grin and share it.