Child's play..

I am greeted once again by the break of another beautiful day. The weatherman says that we are going to be experiencing some rain (a few days worth)--well, I guess we all “pay” eventually for those things we really want, don’t we. I am not gonna complain, I guess 6 days of beautiful weather in a row with 80-degree temps yesterday makes a gray day easier to deal with!! I know I begin most of my posts with a comment on the weather…but those of us who live in upstate NY understand why…we are seriously appreciating THIS!! But I can take the rainy days too.

I can pretty much find something beautiful in everything….even those undesirable things, things that are easily tossed aside, forgotten, or overlooked. More than the purpose of the rain to aid in growth, protection, and afford our earth a blanket of green…it has a fragrance of its own, and the denseness added to the air from moisture also carries fragrance from the flowers, and a sound that promotes a sort-of calming effect in our bodies, it also cools the earth and the air much like the expulsion of sweat cools our bodies…and let’s face it…without rain…there would be NO rainbow, right? The only reason why we complain about rain really is because it seems to inconvenience us is some way…how shallow! “OMG, it is raining and I had planned on getting a few holes of golf in today…or I just washed my car, OF COURSE it rains, I just did my hair“…and the list of complaints goes on and on…ALL of them centered around our inconvenience. I am just as guilty…especially when it comes days on end. I remember days of hard rain when I was a kid, and it NEVER stopped us from doing anything…as a matter of fact, the sewer drain would clog and the street would flood up over the curb and we would jump right in as if it were a make-shift pool or something, playing and splashing…always “making lemonade“…kids are so accepting and resilient when it comes to these pesky inconveniences of nature we adults incessantly complain about. Same with the snow. As a kid, I would sit attentively watching the weather HOPING we would get DUMPED on so we could sled, and build snow forts, have snowball fights, build snow-people, make snow angels….it seems that childhood has a purity and wisdom that gets tarnished as the EGO begins to develop and we submit to condition.

I am learning that no matter how much things change…they CAN stay the same…it is just a matter of will and attitude. We confine OURSELVES, restrict OURSELVES, and then we blame society or mother nature…because we are more concerned with being a part than just BEING. Take a minute to just think back…didn’t we all at one point rebel in some way to the norms in adolescence? Maybe this was the purest part of us recognizing that as we grow, our freedom was going to be stripped by some unspoken censored CODE threatening our individuality….but we concede, adapt, and blend right in and we don’t even realize it UNTIL WE DO.

That being said, I have bigger fish to fry and bigger problems with greed and the power structures--governmental/corporate entities that threaten to keep us restricted than I do those things that promote GROWTH…if it rains where you are today…run outside, dance, stomp in a puddle, go ahead and get those holes of golf in, wash your car in it, hell…wash your HAIR in it…whatever…ALLOW yourself to enjoy the smell, the feel, the sound of it…be a kid again…regress back to a time when just waking up everyday was exciting and in itself lent us a new opportunity to live whatever our mind could conceive…make some “lemonade”…refresh yourself, enjoy yourself, unleash yourself from being a victim of circumstance…we have enough of that imposed on us from others, don’t we? Don’t reduce who you are in any way to self-censorship…it is unwarranted, unhealthy, and a detriment to a BETTER you and (believe it or not) society as a whole.

“This life is yours. Take the power to choose what you want to do and do it well. Take the power to love what you want in life and love it honestly. Take the power to walk in the forest and be a part of nature. Take the power to control your own life. No one else can do it for you. Take the power to make your life happy.”~Susan Polis Schutz