Making the Most of the Weather

It took a while to get going, I wondered if it ever would, but finally here we are in the dead heat of Summer. Just days from August and Chicagoland finally has strung together some solid sunshine and sweltering heat. I say bring it on! I don’t know about you but I was downright
fussy with all the rain and cancelled plans. Weather is a great teacher of the need to make the best of what is available to us. There simply is nothing you can do about it. Alter plans, adjust attitudes, get creative.( Photo Mark Freeth)

This is often the case in other areas of life as well. As much as we like to think we are in control, can attract everything we want or change any situation with strong will power, good karma, a  healthy lifestyle and a big dose of optimism, we just cannot. Sometimes things are not under our control, expectations are wrong, promises broken. We become ill, we have a child with challenges, we lose a job, someone we love dies. Life is not predictable and it certainly is not fair but it is good and precious. 

As a life coach and natural die hard optimist I am a big believer in silver linings and new opportunities but I also acknowledge that part of life is painful and difficult. There will always be the catastrophic storms, rain and gray days. I often have to temper my instinct to minimize negative and difficult things. I tend to rush to find the good or the growth that is available if you look deeply or long enough. I have to remind myself thatall experience is part of a rich full life, to be patient and learn to be with whatever I am experiencing. It is even more challenging to allow someone I care for to traverse tough times and resist the urge to “ fix” or help them quickly get through their pain. It is hard to suffer but can be more difficult still to sit with someone you love who is suffering.

We are so trained that negative is so… well... negative. We will do anything to avoid pain or to deny it exists. We want prescriptions for all that ails us to fix it fast or dull it out. Medicine, alcohol, drugs, shopping, sex and so on. There is even a large contingent of folks that say nothing is negative, after all it is just our perception. This way of thinking tempted me several years back for a few minutes then I realized this also is denial and frankly just BS. Life outside ourselves is just like life inside ourselves, a wondrous mix of all things. In all of nature the negative and the positive work together. Opposite charges always coexist, to deny or avoid this fact causes imbalance and rejects life itself.

 Like the weather life is unpredictable, not under our control and not our fault. Life can change very quickly and even violently. The only thing we have any control over is ourselves; how we will make the best of what is available to us. Alter plans, adjust attitudes, get creative, this determines the quality of our lives.

There are many times in life that we should boldly stretch our arms open wide, grabbing hold tightly of all the beauty, never letting go of a single once of goodness. There are also times we must courageously stretch those same arms open, stand firm with our fingers spread wide as we allow what is happening to pass over and through us.

So now that we are in a stretch of good weather what shall we do about it? Open your arms wide, enjoy the sun, embrace life. Make the most of long hot days and shore up all the great times you can muster. Recharge yourself body, mind and soul. Bask in the sunshine of your own brilliance and burn a bit more brightly as a result.