Yesterday, as the result of a storm, there was ice in my driveway. It was summer hail. As it was hitting my house and car, it sounded like I was under attack. It got me to thinking about the different forms of frozen precipitation and how they mirror our approach to life.

Let’s look at three:

1. Hail

2. Sleet

3. Snow

Hail is hard, unrelenting and physically harmful. Sleet is more moderate because it’s a less severe form of hail. Snow is the least harmful to our physical being.

Hail is hard and fast like many of the outdated rules that we live by. Sleet keeps us icy and less approachable. Snow is made up of flakes, each one with a different configuration that takes the shape of the surface on which it lands.

Snow is the most flexible and as the Grasshopper reminded us many seasons ago, the person with the most flexibility wins more often.

If you’re getting perpetually pelted in life, it may be time to take a look at your approach. If you most often rail (rhymes with hail), that is what you will get in return: a torrent, because actions get similar reactions.

One of life’s lessons that I’m still learning is that I contribute a lot to my personal storms. It’s too easy to assign the cause to someone or something else, but that only keeps a light shined on the problem rather than illuminating a solution.

Paraphrasing and bastardizing Longfellow, “Into each life some hail must fall,” so be flexible, y’all.

All the best,

John