Into The Storm

Driving home today after a weekend in the woods, storm clouds gathered in the sky ahead. There are times when that is what the beginning of a new week feels like. A storm is brewing and I’m headed right for it.

Maybe you can relate.

Part of me wanted to turn our car around and head back where we came. Away from our cell phones, the work waiting for us at home, and the addition of unexpected tasks to be completed. Then I noticed the car ahead of us pulling a small camper. A camper that was most likely equipped with the essentials needed to stay warm and dry, even in the midst of a storm.

Storms are a part of life, and we take them as they come. Sometimes we hunker down and wait for them to pass. But more often than not we head out, equipped to weather what we encounter, and come out the other side the better for it.

Under The Weather

Like the weather, emotions are fickle. Sometimes blowing in like a winter storm, here one day and gone the next, settling in to stay like the snow piled up around our house, or like the blustery days of spring, changing by the minute. Emotions create the internal climate within which we live out each day, and like the weather outside, some days are easier to manage than others. On days when our emotions are dark and gloomy, the temptation is to imagine that the clouds will never lift. When our skies are blue, we might be inclined to take such days for granted, forgetting that another storm is on the way.

This morning my internal skies were clear, but yesterday they were gray, and my growing edge is to not take a down day too seriously. To allow it, like a storm front, to make its way across my inner landscape, and remind myself that one day does not an emotional weather pattern make.