My travel schedule has been busy right from the start this year: A week in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a week in Lake Oswego, Oregon, and a week in San Antonio, Texas. Tennessee was cold, Oregon was wet, and Texas was cold and hot and sunny and rainy (aka. confused).
Now that I'm back home, the weather has alternated between dark grey skies dumping rain and beautiful sunny blue skies punctuated by fluffy white clouds.
But why all this talk about the weather? I suppose it's just gotten me a bit philosophical lately. For instance, every day I was in Oregon it rained. It rained and rained... except for one beautiful day. That day was glorious. And then the very next day it was back to grey and rainy.
The emotional boost provided by that one glorious day stood in stark contrast to the gloomy, rainy days. I didn't give it much thought at the time, but soon after I was reminded of an insight that I gained years ago from spending so much time flying from one city to another. Let me see if I can put this into words.
Here at home (and all up the northwest coast) winter is our rainy season. Winters can be long and wet and - sigh - depressing at times (Unless of course you live in a state that has been hammered by drought for years in which case the whole "Ugh it's raining" mentality flip flops into "Thank goodness it's raining").
Day after day - and if you're far enough north - week after week that rain can keep falling. And it can get you down.
But here's the thing... Take any miserable, rainy day. Hop in a plane, climb above the cloud layer, and voila! It's a beautiful, sunny day. Sometimes life is like that. You can get all caught up in how oppressive the dark stormy clouds are, but the reality is it's always sunny. Always. Sometimes you just have to remember that the sun is always there and rise above it all.
Easier said than done, I suppose, but it's still true.
Funny, as I write this, I've got the song "You are my sunshine" stuck in my head. In this philosophical mood I'm in, the second line is resonating right now: "You make me happy when skies are grey."
Who makes you happy? What makes you happy? How can you rise above the clouds in order to see the sunshine that's always there?
Anyway... I took a few photos of Oregon and Texas. Take a look.
Now that I'm back home, the weather has alternated between dark grey skies dumping rain and beautiful sunny blue skies punctuated by fluffy white clouds.
But why all this talk about the weather? I suppose it's just gotten me a bit philosophical lately. For instance, every day I was in Oregon it rained. It rained and rained... except for one beautiful day. That day was glorious. And then the very next day it was back to grey and rainy.
The emotional boost provided by that one glorious day stood in stark contrast to the gloomy, rainy days. I didn't give it much thought at the time, but soon after I was reminded of an insight that I gained years ago from spending so much time flying from one city to another. Let me see if I can put this into words.
Here at home (and all up the northwest coast) winter is our rainy season. Winters can be long and wet and - sigh - depressing at times (Unless of course you live in a state that has been hammered by drought for years in which case the whole "Ugh it's raining" mentality flip flops into "Thank goodness it's raining").
Day after day - and if you're far enough north - week after week that rain can keep falling. And it can get you down.
But here's the thing... Take any miserable, rainy day. Hop in a plane, climb above the cloud layer, and voila! It's a beautiful, sunny day. Sometimes life is like that. You can get all caught up in how oppressive the dark stormy clouds are, but the reality is it's always sunny. Always. Sometimes you just have to remember that the sun is always there and rise above it all.
Easier said than done, I suppose, but it's still true.
Funny, as I write this, I've got the song "You are my sunshine" stuck in my head. In this philosophical mood I'm in, the second line is resonating right now: "You make me happy when skies are grey."
Who makes you happy? What makes you happy? How can you rise above the clouds in order to see the sunshine that's always there?
Anyway... I took a few photos of Oregon and Texas. Take a look.
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