Rain or Shine
A barometer on someone’s character can easily be measured by asking them about the weather. This seems to work if it’s a perfect, sunny day or in the midst of a long rainy spell. You can test the theory on people around you, or better still, test it out on yourself.
I think this idea works best if you live in Vancouver. We seem to talk about the weather a lot.
There are the people that after one rainy day can’t even remember that the week before was stunning. A few drops of moisture and they fall into some sort of trance that the sun will never shine again and we will be doomed for months ahead.
I try to stay away from these people.
Then you come across someone like Frank, the janitor. We were looking out on to the street at 1am. I was taking a break from some long hours at a film shoot. He was about to start his shift cleaning the adjoining offices. We were both gazing out the window at a downpour. I made some meaningless Vancouver-like comment about the rain. Frank gave his perspective…
“This is wonderful. We get to sit inside nice and dry and the streets and everything are getting cleaned. How great is that? No one could ever pour as much water on those sidewalks as Mother Nature. Good work! Tomorrow everything will be pretty again”.
Frank is a person I want to know. Frank is a glass-full type of man.
Luckily, some blip in my brain forgets bad weather. If asked, I will tell you we’ve had weeks of the good stuff. And even though I’m outside most of the day, rain just means you wear a hat and get a little wet. And no one ever died from getting a little wet.
I could go on and on about accepting things you can’t change. But that comment rarely changes anyone’s mind.
Complaining about the weather is easy. I secretly think it’s just a bad habit. And we all know how hard it is to break a habit.
I’ll continue to think the weather is perfect. And anytime it rains I’ll think of Frank and wonder what else he transforms into a miracle.
The view from my window as I write this blog
Well put, Tricia, both you and Frank. I used to have more “trouble” with rainy weather. I think the reason was that, as a teacher of five and six year olds, I lost time to breathe and relax when the kids had to stay inside to play. And they lost their freedom to run and squeal, making them much more “antsy” for the rest of the day. We all loved the days they could pour out of the school doors for their breaks. Hopefully I can recover a good attitude about these rainy days! We have had a glorious spring, summer and fall, and the rain just serves to feed the earth!
At night, when it rains, the red and green street lights reflect in the street – makes me think of Christmas all winter!
🙂
Just read this and smiled. My thought is that folks willingly step into showers, both hot ones and cold, and do so willingly. Then they often grumble when putting up an umbrella.
Weird that!