After the Heat Comes the Rain

“A promise is a cloud; fulfillment is rain.” - Arabian Proverb

It was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow who said, “Into each life some rain must fall.” The fact that life will have its ups and downs is true as a blue sky, the moon and promise of the sun rising each day.

When rain is falling on your day, how you choose to handle it determines how bright the rainbow will be at the end.

If you allow despair or depression to take over, you will miss all that is good within the rain. Know that "Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain.”

There is music to be heard in the pitter patter of raindrops.

We can feel melancholy when the rain begins to fall. A rainy day can give us the feeling or need to sit quietly in our home, relaxing and contemplating life. As we sit, we could allow ourselves to ponder the negative. But the negative can overtake and drive our lows even lower.

We can change those thoughts though. We can entertain the idea of dancing in the rain, playing in the rain, collecting tadpoles in the rain or just watching the rhythm of rain happen.

Revel what is good in your life.

The sky will clear as will the problems encountered in life. Know it and speak words of encouragement back into your life.

As John Updike wrote, “Rain is grace; rain is the sky condescending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life.” Life is not only sunshine, but also contains rain. Embrace both and see your world grow even larger.

Stay inspired my friends.

Celebrate the Possibility

"The moment when you first wake up in the morning is the most wonderful of the twenty-four hours. No matter how weary or dreary you may feel, you possess the certainty that, during the day that lies before you, absolutely anything may happen. And the fact that it practically always doesn't, matters not a jot. The possibility is always there." ~ Monica Baldwin

Each day you wake, the existence of possibility rises with you.

What happened yesterday is over and a new beginning starts to spread out before you like rays of sunshine. Poetic, maybe not; but the idea is you have an ability to make the day what you want it to be.

We get to choose how we are going to respond to life by choosing our attitude.

The path we are going to take is also ours to decide. Some make the choice to remain under the covers, feeling safe within the warmth of their bed. Yet there is an old saying, "The bed we make is the one we must now lay in" holds true. The bed you lay in will only result in ruffled bed sheets, nothing more. What happens out in our day will flow past us if we remain secluded and don't take part in it.

Arise in the morning and choose to believe in the possibility of the day.

So much could happen.

So much will happen.

You only need to allow your belief to spread like sunshine over all that you do. Stay inspired my friends.

Storms Revealed

"Storms reveal what a sunny day conceals." -Jill Sweetman

When the day begins, I get into my car and drive off down the road to work. In the breaking morning light, I look to the sky in order to get a sense of what the weather is going to be like. Since I was raised on the farm, I've learned to appreciate and curse what awaits over the horizon.

I may look to a weather forecast and judge what kind of day it might be, but I would rather wait upon the change. If the day starts out sunny and mild, the expectation of a great day sets the mood for many of us. We tend to be more pleasing to others and in our attitude.

When things are going well such as family, work and other aspects of our lives; our true ability to weather a storm is easily concealed. There is an old phrase that goes, "when the going gets tough, the tough get going." In many respects that phrase is about determination to overcome. But when the going gets tough, when the 'storms' in your life occur, our true nature is revealed.

Think again of the morning drive into work. If storms are filling the early day with rain, wind and miserable conditions, do you allow your spirits to be dampened. When you do, it will translate into stress, shortness with others and just a lousy attitude.

If you learn to accept the rain and adjust your own reaction to it, the drive isn't so bad. Your own attitude can bring a certain 'sunshine' into the gloominess of a rainy day. Very easy for me to state the obvious, but you need to examine your own attitude when things are bad.

When things are going well, it is easy to be positive about things. Yet when things are going not so well in your life, this will be the true measure of your inner attitude.

Stay inspired my friends.