What a beautiful morning (sarcasm)! If you don’t live in this area, it’s raining. Actually, raining is too mild a word. It’s pouring, it’s lightning, and it’s thundering. Tori went to the door, peeked out, and that was it. I don’t blame her. I don’t want to go out either.
There are mornings you open the door, take a look at what’s happening outside, and think, “Nope.”
Some mornings call for an umbrella or a raincoat. And some mornings call for getting back in your chair, making another cup of coffee, and pretending you never considered leaving the house in the first place.
There’s a saying that goes, “Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet.” I googled the source and found that while it’s often attributed to Bob Marley, the earliest documented use is from country singer Roger Miller in the early 1970s.
On the surface, I don’t get it. If you feel the rain, of course you get wet. Duh. But there is a deeper point. Perhaps whoever said it understood something about life.
Some people, adults even, can stand in the rain and find something beautiful about it. They hear the sound on the roof. They notice how the leaves on the trees seem to reach for the water. They appreciate the way everything smells after a shower. They see the rain as nourishment for the grass and flowers.
Sometimes, I’m that way. Just not this morning. We see the rain and think: Ew, wet.
That’s it. No poetry. No metaphors. Nothing profound. Just, “Wet.”
And there’s nothing wrong with that. Not every moment has to come with a profound life lesson.
But maybe there’s something worth remembering on those days. We don’t get to choose the weather. We don’t get to control every circumstance. What we can choose, at least some of the time, is how we receive the day we’ve been given.
We can grumble, or we can laugh. We can stay inside with the dog, or we can go out and splash in the rain.
That’s as deep as I can be this morning. For now, until I need to go out, I’ll listen to the rain. I’ll be grateful that I’m warm and dry. I’ll enjoy my coffee. As another saying goes, “This is the day that the Lord has made (yes, even this one). I will rejoice and be glad in it.”
And Tori will ultimately have to go outside whether she wants to or not, because the alternative isn’t an alternative.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for this day, even though the start isn’t what I would have ordered. Even in the storm, help me remember that I am not alone. Give me the grace to laugh at what I can, endure what I must, and notice the blessings that are still around me. And when the rain comes, remind me that storms don’t last forever. Amen.
