Caught in the Rain

As many of you know, it has been raining on and off all day here. There hasn't been so much of an ongoing deluge but there have been some moments of pretty thick rain. Anyway, I got caught in the rain during said moments twice today and it really proves that attitude is everything.

The first time, I was trying to load a bunch of stuff in my car, including a lawn ornament I bought on clearance that is a very tight squeeze and required me to put all of the seats in the back down to make room. It started to drizzle when I walked out of the store. As I got to the car it was raining pretty hard. I was hurriedly rushing to try to get everything into the car as quickly as possible.

The second time, however, Chuck and I were walking home from having dinner out at Syberg's. We weren't on a strict schedule and when the sky opened up we took shelter in the lee of a tree (there wasn't any lightning worth noting, just rain). It continued to rain steadily for awhile, but during a slight break we managed to dart across the street to wait it out under an awning.

The first time, I was all annoyed, irritated and frustrated. I was not in a good mood about it and it made the experience highly unpleasant. However, the second time wasn't as bad for all that it rained harder longer and I got wetter. I actually kind of enjoyed the rain and felt more relaxed and closer to nature afterwards.

Attitude can make all the difference in the world. I know that I tend to worry and am a bit of a pessimist, but it really does help to just let things go. We need to enjoy the time that we have and take pleasure in the mundane - it can help us to better appreciate those things that we don't want to do (like washing dishes) and allow those activities to transcend themselves. We need to be aware of the moments we are in rather than worrying about the past, which we cannot change and can only learn from, or the future, which will come sooner than we think.

Allow yourself to be present in the present.