I’m grateful for short days at work, a marvelous team that truly works together for the good of everyone, and for rain- but not too much- just a little.
Yesterday I had an appointment so I only worked a half day. I’m truly thankful that I didn’t have to be there longer. There were way too many crazy things going on, too much chaos, for me to be able to manage a full day. The highlight in my short day was that it was going off the rails for my whole team, but we worked together for the afternoon and finished strong.
Not only that, but we also got a few things organized for the coming days. I love it when we have stuff sorted out early, instead of being reactionary.
I’m also grateful for the rain that came in the afternoon. My inlaws are not grateful for their entire house flooding. I’m sorry they’re going through such a tough time. We went over to their house as soon as we found out.
There wasn’t much we could do until the water receded, but we were there to help salvage anything that might have been seriously damaged, and of course for moral support. But here in the desert, we need an occasional rain. Please note: I said occasional. I’m a desert dweller for a reason and if I wanted rain, I’d live in Seattle. However, my plants in the garden can always use some extra water as I’m sure could our water table.
I’m thankful that my husband got to enjoy the rain with our baby as well. She’s never really been in the rain, so they got to play together in the backyard. I watched from the covered patio. I’m grateful for that too.
I’m sure most people have heard this saying, “When it rains, it pours”. My grandma used to say it a lot when I was a kid. She had a bunch of other sayings too, but this one has always stuck with me.
Quite literally it’s been raining like crazy in Phoenix, where I live. For about two weeks we’ve seen close to our annual levels of rain. Some days it just sprinkles, but others, it’s torrential downpour. Since I live in downtown Phoenix, we almost never see real rain because of the “heat island” effect. Without getting political, the concrete traps so much heat that basically the water vapor that would become rain, evaporates and therefore cannot become rain. It becomes mostly humidity and that’s lame. Hot I can do, humid, ok… but 115 degrees AND humidity? Forget it.
The common archetype for rain, that is, the historical and common wisdom explanations and reasons for rain often surround destruction and rebirth or renewal. If you think about it, after terrible storms that destroy property or end lives, there is often a period of rebuilding, tremendous growth and change. Structures may be washed away, but the resilience of human, animal and plant life is to continue to exist.
We are engrained with the concept that we MUST continue on. That is why in the face of extreme adversity, we don’t just jump off a cliff. It’s not in our collective wiring. Yes, we all know that suicide is possible and all too common, however, it takes an unbelievable amount of strength to overcome that natural survival instinct. Many people see it as weakness, but while there may be an element of weakness but at the time of leaving this world, that person has demonstrated the ability to literally override thousands of years of genetic conditioning. Quite a demonstration of strength if you ask me. I’m not in ANY way condoning or encouraging suicides. I’m simply pointing out that it’s very difficult to accomplish.
Anyway, the same thing goes for wildfires. They are an insanely destructive force that takes the lives of acres of trees, displaces possibly thousands of people and animals, as well as causing massive upheaval. However, without them, many forests would die within a few seasons. The forests need to be thinned, the charred remains of the trees then become fertilizer for the new generation of forest and those that survive end up becoming much stronger and able to withstand more and more. Again, nature provides a hugely destructive catalyst to amazing growth and change.
What we call life does the same things to each of us. It can manifest in countless ways, but nevertheless, we are often face to face with destruction. Relationships end, forcing the people involved to start over and rebuild their lives. Careers end, forcing the worker to find a new job or learn new skills to make themselves more marketable. Someone passes away, forcing the friends and family to bond together and find comfort, solace and the strength to continue forward. All of the things the universe throws at you or I can be seen as death, destruction, the end…. but they can also be seen as lessons, opportunities and rebirth. You can roll over and let the fire or flood take you, or you can weather the storm and rebuild. Those are really the only choices. But trust me, by not making a “choice”, you’re making a choice and the universe will only play nice for so long, until it forces your hand and makes the choice for you. At which point, you’re at the mercy of Nature.
I tend to want to have a say in my life. Often this makes things much harder for me. But I also have the opportunity to learn more lessons in a shorter time span. There’s a reason I’ve got more life experience than several people much older than me. It’s not because I’ve been sitting around on my duff all these years. It’s because I’m constantly making changes, both destructive and constructive. However, there’s a few things that I’ve learned along the way: 1) Always love. If you do things out of malice, spite or being reactionary, you will regret it. 2) Honesty is the best policy. This begins with being true to yourself and understanding your true nature. If you cannot be honest with yourself, you cannot be honest with others. 3) Strive for perfection, but accept that you are human. It’s unreasonable to think that you will understand everything, learn everything and life will be easy. That’s just not true. But if you set the bar high and strive to meet it in everything you do, you will still have great results. In that strive for excellence, you must also remember that you’re only human and you will make mistakes. 4) Acceptance- you must accept that you’re human and that sometimes crap happens. Bad stuff does happen to good people, but you can dwell or you can accept that it’s an obstacle and dust off, so you can move on and 5) MOVE ON. When things haven’t worked out doing something a certain way, try a different way. If that doesn’t work, try another. But at some point, you have to know when to stop spinning your wheels and just let it go. It does no good to you to go crazy over details or mulling over the same one thing all the time. You have to be able to move on and let things go.
These are just some things that I’ve learned recently and I hope that you, my loyal readers, find your way through life and learn from adversity as I have and continue to. Until next time!
