It’s been raining a lot lately. So much in fact I’ve decided to get a Home Depot credit card to buy all the supplies I need to build an arc. Right now they have this superb offer of 0 payments and 0 interest for 12 months. Flood or not that is a damn good offer. And so I return to writing. Don’t call it a come back but it has been awhile since I’ve added any of my measly little thoughts for the world to dissect. I’m looking out of the window on a very wet and rainy day and the last 6 months of my life speak to me in very clear terms. Life is not about waiting for the rain to stop…it’s about giving your umbrella the bird.
It seems lately that I’ve been coming out of a hazy whirlwind only to realize it is Thursday afternoon. No time for feelings or stopping to enjoy moments…simply full throttle and all systems go. There have been those mornings I’ve woken up and the first thought on my mind is the next project to accomplish and something inside of me tells me there is something off. I tuck those thoughts away as I drink my 2nd cup of amazing fair wage coffee and I pick up my sword as I storm off to battle the day ahead. It becomes Thursday afternoon again, I wonder where the week went and I eagerly get excited about a restful weekend that will involve no rest at all. So today I sit and wonder. Why do we do it? Why is it that we wait until something tragic happens in our lives before we come out of the haze and begin to dream of a simpler life with more relationships and true meaning. It seems to me only in those moments of disappoint, heartbreak, or death do we question what the hell it is we’re doing with our life. We then let 6 weeks go by before we begin our plan to acquire the HDTV that we so desperate need in our lives to survive. Anyone who has seen Planet Earth in HD knows this is no joking matter. And so the “rat race” continues. The marathon of people desperately trying to find meaning in work, people, and stuff. Do we continue the cycle of insanity because we do not know the answer or is it that we’ll never figure it out in the first place.
Funny how rain can ruin a day yet some of my greatest memories come from being in the rain. Like the time I was in high school and we played a 5 on 5 death match of mud football. I love how playing in a foot and a half of water makes the fastest of guys slow and the slowest of guys fast. We were drenched as our white shirts were a light coffee color and we still laugh today about how fun it was. Or the time I worshipped in Memphis with 80,000 people. Rain is suppose to ruin a day of white American Christians trying to get their Jesus on so thankfully I am only half and enjoyed the feeling of truly letting go. My senior road trip with 4 of my closest friends had a stop in Ashville, NC. I can still hear the sound of rain falling on the canopy of trees above as we hiked down to a boulder the size of a house. We stood on that rock and sang. We got wet and sang. Kisses in the rain, shampooing my hair in the cold Tennessee rain, sliding down the muddy mountains of the Na Pali coast in Kauai, throwing clumps of sludge, and smiling so big my mouth hurt as it monsooned on my wedding day. We never wish for it to rain on the days we’re hoping for sunny skies but when we choose to embrace it we find ourselves in a special place of making memories that only get sweeter as the years go on.
So as I’ve gotten 6 months older I’ve learned to give the umbrella the bird. Because it will always rain. And I can choose to tip toe through life and hope my hair doesn’t get wet or I can dance and laugh while I lather, rinse, and repeat. There is a weird peace in knowing that when I am stressed out about life that it’s just 1 more of 10,000 more that I will have. Hopefully this time I can make a memory I’ll be sharing 5 years from now. Truth sinks in today and my eyes are opened to the reality that rain is essential to growth. Chew on that awhile until its easier to swallow.
SB
