“Rain” © R.L. Herron
Today started as a beautiful, sunny morning and it stayed that way well into the afternoon.
However, as nice as the day seemed destined to be, around dinner time the sky suddenly darkened, the wind began to blow and, as the temperature plummeted, rain started to fall, hard and cold.
Anyone who had not paid attention to the weather forecast was certain to get a very wet surprise.
Life can be just like that.
Sunny and mild and seemingly quite nice, only to suddenly turn stormy and deliver a very unwelcome drenching.
Quite often the storm seems to come out of the proverbial “nowhere.” At other times, it is all too obviously of our own doing.
We’ve all heard the saying “into each life some rain must fall” and the cliche is overworked, but true.
We can all expect to be caught in a very unwelcome downpour from time-to-time. The really telling thing comes in how we respond to it. We can, as many do, lament our position and cry. You see it in our media all the time.
However, the stories we admire and consider extraordinary are those where the drenching rain is shrugged off, the people dry themselves as best they can, give help to their neighbors and keep going.
These stories of perseverance are the tales we hold high and repeat. We tend to find them remarkable, but the choice to react that way is always our own. Always.
As I watched the clouds roll by this afternoon, I couldn’t help pondering how we, collectively, have been handling the stormy downturn in the world’s economy. It wasn’t as much of a stretch as it might seem.
Are we using it as an excuse to lament, or are we tightening our belts, holding out our hands to our neighbors and looking for shelter?
The way we react says a lot about us, both as individuals and as a society.
I hope I’m the kind of person who puts out his hand to others in need, and I’m enough of an optimist to look for my neighbor’s hand in return.
The world, as bleak as it can sometimes get, seems a little brighter that way.
Painting With Light 
May 5, 2010 at 6:20 pm |
Very true. Friends of mine went through a bad patch. He had always been a little eccentric – used to sit outside with his laptop, wearing a cowboy hat. (Sorry, cowboy hats are viewed as pretty eccentric in this part of the world…). And his wife, a lovely lady, got something strange – not Alzheimer’s but the symptoms were the same.
She used to wander the neighbourhood looking for her children. She was thinking of them as toddlers, but they’d all grown up and flown the nest. And that was OK – all the neighbours would gently coax her home and persuade her that everything was alright.
Until we got the crazy winter weather this year. The area was frozen solid for three weeks – I know, nothing in the great scheme of things. But this girl still went wandering, and the ground was just like an ice-rink. And she fell. And she fell. Half a dozen neighbours told me they’d picked her up and taken her home.
Outcome was, when Social Services finally got around to paying a visit, (after the thaw of course), they find this lady covered in bruises. And they (finally) take her into care, and accuse her husband of battering her. Her husband (while a little mad), would never have dreamed of harming her – he just had no idea of how to deal with her, and got no advice or help from any of the authorities.
Then he contacts all his kids, asks if they think he would hurt their mother. And the kids (who haven’t been home for years, but who’ve just seen their mother covered in bruises) are ambivalent. And then he topped himself.
And his wife is much calmer now, living in a mental home.
Who’s to bless and who’s to blame?
Regards – John
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May 5, 2010 at 9:35 pm |
Scary sometimes, the choices life forces our way. I’m truly sorry for your friend, John. It seems society wasn’t much help for him, or his wife. Unfortunately, whether we like it or not, that’s one of the things we must deal with “in the rain.”
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May 4, 2010 at 12:08 pm |
Yes, the choices we make are just as important now as ever. I’ve felt the rain. I’m plodding through the rain to look for the bright future and the blossoming of new things. The things… new businesses, new people, maybe even new products. The spring fills us with wonder and anticipation of what’s next. I like the optimism and freshness that’s happening now as we climb out of the recession and look for new opportunities.
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