Sometimes I like rainy days. This used to be more common than it is now. As I have aged, I have learned, or perhaps have been taught, to enjoy and appreciate sunny days. But there was a period in my life when I really enjoyed rainy days.
Why is this?
Perhaps it is nostalgia. On the farm there were many days of working in the fields. These could be interrupted by rain. The sudden downpour with drenching rain and rush for inside. Then the soothing feeling of changing into dry clothes and settling into the warm house. The day was suddenly free. We could do anything. We could watch television or play games or just do anything. We couldn’t work because of the rain. It was like a snow day in the summer. It was a gift.
I think there is more to it than that. Life is not always cheery and happy. This is a broken world. There is often sadness and grief. It can be hard to put up with bright sunshine when your heart is not happy. When the gray and rain come, it is easier to relax and be at one with whatever grief is in your heart and soul. You are allowed to be as you want to be, rather than having to put on what you think that you should be. You can be quiet. You can be sad. You can be mellow. You can just be.
Perhaps it is like watching a dramatic movie. It can be a sweet indulgence of your inner sorrow. You break down in tears for what is happening on the movie screen. But what you may be really crying for are the experiences from your life. You are feeling a deeper sorrow within your own heart. It is like a syncing up of your outward expression and your feelings with what is happening within.
But there is a risk in the rain.
It can be a prideful self indulgence. It can be to ennoble yourself by whatever grief you are feeling at the expense of ignoring the good that remains in your life.
For while this is a broken world, there is still beauty and joy within it.
In the midst of the rain, there remains the promise of sunshine to come after. In the midst of sorrow, there is the love of a dear friend and a listening ear. On the top of the thorny stem of a rose is the sweet and beautiful rose. The dramatic movie is so sad because of the joys that were also present in the movie.
This life is complicated in that it is neither perfectly joyful nor perfectly sorrowful. It is a mixture of good and bad, joy and sorrow, sunshine and rain.
I used to enjoy a rainy day.
That was easier. But over time I have learned to really enjoy the sun. Honestly, I have been taught to enjoy the sun by my wife Sarah and my daughters.
They have patiently taught me that it is not good to take myself so seriously. They have shown me the joy of the sunshine. I have learned how to look for the good in the day. At times they have had to tease me out of the rain and into the sunshine. They may not know what they were doing in this. But they have brought to me the ability to enjoy the sunshine.
I sit and type this on a wonderful and sunny day. I was at a restaurant and asked to be seated at a table in the sunshine and felt it warm on my back and neck. I stared out the window and looked at the sun shining through the trees. I felt all that is good in the world and it balanced out anything the gray and rain of the past two days.
I can still feel deeply and write this blog and yet enjoy the sunshine. Drama does not always require sorrow. Drama can exist in the sunshine. It is just that many of us have not yet learned the skill of enjoying the days of sunshine and that doing so does not betray the reality of the rain.
I am thankful for having been taught to be able to enjoy the sunshine as well as the rain. I know that I am a more complete human now for having gained that skill.
That is the balance that is real and true and essential.
Parts of life are rain. They are gray. They are sad. Or they may be just not sunshiny and happy.
Parts of life are sunshine. They are bright and happy and warm.
Both are real. And we need to be able to embrace both of them.
If you think life is only sunshine, you are not being honest about the reality of this world. Sometimes we need to be mellow and quiet.
If you live your life only in the rain, you also are neglecting the good that remains for you to enjoy.
I used to really enjoy a rainy day. Sometimes I do still. But now I welcome with great relish the sunshiny days as well. I celebrate them with great vigor. And that is I think a key life skill. The skill is to be mature enough to be able to acknowledge the rainy days before with the grief, the pain, the sorrow and all that happened but yet to celebrate the sunshine when it comes. The joy in the sunshine is in no way a betrayal of the rainy days. It does not ignore the fact of the rain. But it does acknowledge the fact of the sunshine. Both are reality. And indulging in only one or the other is a great failing.
Sometimes I like rainy days.
But now I also really like sunny ones as well.
