Embracing the Suck

"You are the sky. Everything else is just the weather. ~ Pema Chödrön

It's been raining where I live for what seems like forever and the forecast is calling for additional rain for the foreseeable future. It's not as if this part of the U.S. heartland has no history with long periods of dark, dank, wet and grey. It's just that it always appears to be a big surprise and an oddity to all of us when the Sun disappears for long periods of time.

This is when the marathon training kicks in. I embrace The Suck of the darkness.

We have no control over the rain, the wind, or the oppressive heat when it comes. Our feeble attempts at battling the onslaught of bad weather typically take the form of complaining, cursing, or getting into a funk and hiding, in other words, going away, disappearing.

We cannot control the weather. We can, however, be judicious stewards of our own well being, of our souls and bodies. We can take care of ourselves by accepting there is not a damn thing we can do about the rain. We can look forward to spring's resurgence, we can notice the greens beginning to emerge despite the constant water cannon fire from above.

We can learn a lot from the crocuses and daffodils.

We can see the beauty of the March and April showers. We can look beyond our varying degrees of Seasonal Affective Disorder and grow to love the nourishment coming from the dark clouds above. By awakening those peeking perennials the Great Creator is urging us to look beyond the NOW, to prepare our bodies, our lands, our homes, our minds and souls for the explosion of life we know is imminent, even if we can hardly imagine a world of color and warmth in the dankness that is early spring.

No, we cannot control the weather. What we can do is to NOT give up on life. There is a future for us, and those whom we love. We CAN embrace the suck of the early spring even while we hate the missteps into 6-inch potholes filled with billions of cold raindrops.

"DAMN... and I just bought these shoes!"

We can love our children and hate the addiction.

Early spring storms are classrooms for us to learn how to look beyond the pain we feel each day as we watch our children struggle with the lure of addiction and the perils of recovery. And sometimes, the March and April squalls will extend into May and June as a reminder that recovery has its own schedule. Those extended periods of wet springtime provide lesson plans meant to sustain us through our journey. We cannot control the pace of our children's battles against The Addiction. What we can do is keep moving. We can see the tiny emergence of life and remain joyous in the knowledge the darkness NEVER lasts forever. There is sunshine ahead for us and our children if we continue along OUR journey pathway, embracing the struggle knowing we will emerge better for it, and so will our daughters and sons.

The forsythia are just a few weeks away - I know it!

...keep coming back

"I believe in it now. I believe it's gonna happen to me now. I'm ready for it! And it's great. It's a good feeling. It's, it's really better than I've felt in a long time. I'm, I'm I'm ready ... " ~ Bill Murray as Frank Cross in Scrooged