When It Rains . . . - Grasshopper

The longer version of this Grasshopper musing is, “When it rains, it looks like it’ll never be sunny again.”

Have you ever notice the gloominess of a cloudy, rainy day? We all have. But have you also noticed that we can extrapolate that darkness and paint what our future will look like with that brush?

When we run into a metaphorical rainy day, you know the kind, when nothing is going our way, it feels like everyone had a meeting before we got there and conspired to upset our apple cart. We’ve all had those days.

But those days can turn into weeks, months, or even years if we don’t stop and notice the brightness of the sun when it’s shinning. We talk our way into staying in our rut with dark generalizations that just don’t hold up under inspection.

Yea, today may be a cloudy day, and tomorrow as well. That doesn’t mean you have to label your whole life as a living hell.

Reminds me of a story . . . I would call my mom every Sunday. She lived hundreds of miles away and I would check in to see how she was doing and what was going on in her life. She would mainly launch into what was happening at her workplace. I would hear about this S.O.B. or that ne'er-do-well, and this would go on non-stop for about 10 minutes. Finally, I would interrupt and ask, “Anything good happen this week, mom?” It was a break in the conversation and shifted her to brighter areas of her life.

Another story . . . about 20 years ago I met up with a woman I went to high school with. Hadn’t seen her since then, so it was a catch-up on each other’s life story conversation. She told me about this one thing she did with her children when they were little. At the dinner table, instead of asking how was school that day or a similar question, she would request this instead: “Tell me about the best 10 minutes of your day.”

That one little petition shifted their focus and prevented them from painting themselves into a dark corner that could color their whole outlook.

This doesn’t mean to ignore the dark clouds in your life. They’re going to be there whether you want them or not. Deal with them the best you know how, but “don’t have a cow.” Look over the whole pasture and notice the sun’s trying to break through, and give yourself the option to count your blessings instead of sheep.

I’ll close with this childhood ditty:

Rain, rain, go away
Come again some other day
We want to go outside and play
Come again some other day

All the best,