rain
lightning in mountain home
that had to have been one of the most surreal storms i've been caught in.
i was riding toward boise, about an hour out. the rain clouds on the horizon looked ominous, but i've been wet before.
and then the lightning. that was cool too. except that i was heading straight into it. i thought it might be a good idea to pick up some rain gear, so i turned around and headed back to the walmart in mountain home, idaho.
and that's when i noticed the rest of the storm. what i thought was a storm on the way to boise was behind me as well. in fact, i was almost surrounded by this crazy, dark thunderstorm. it was odd that it was still so warm and dry right in the middle of it all. but i wasn't about to complain.
made it to walmart, found out they didn't have any rain gear, and about then the rain let loose. it seems the storm wasn't all that small. it was about 50 miles wide, and went from twin falls idaho to portland oregon.
there was no way i'd ride through that.
so i found a hotel. i'll get a fresh start on things in the morning.
moderation?
it's true, what they say.
things can't always work out.
relationships, exams, friendships, the weather. nothing will ever be exactly what we want from it.
but we wouldn't think to control the weather. that's preposterous. sometimes it's sunny, sometimes it rains.
yet we pour our all into something we feel like we can control. a relationship that doesn't work out. a final we aren't as prepared for as we thought. or hoped. or wanted to be.
i don't think that's failure. sure, we could have done more. but we didn't.
sure, on a different day, in a different life, sometime, somewhere, it might have been exactly the way we envisioned. but it wasn't.
"Nobody has things just as he would like them. The thing to do is to make a success with what material I have. It is a sheer waste of time and soul-power to imagine what I would do if things were different. They are not different."
Dr. Frank Crane.
know what the beauty of it is? they don't need to be different. i'll take them exactly as they are.
i used to be thankful for the rain. it reminded me how great sunny days can be. i thought i was enlightened. a sort of "see the good in the bad things you have to deal with" attitude.
but why settle for that? isn't it better to be happy for the rain? isn't it better to appreciate the light sting of raindrops on your face at 60 mph? isn't it better to wade through knee-deep puddles because you want to?
why make your happiness contingent upon something outside of your control?
if you learn to love the rain, you can be happy all of the time.