PhotoCredit: Rain
It’s been raining in LA for the last ten days. At least. It’s incessant. Usually, this would be all anyone could talk about. But we don’t talk about the weather...we talk about illness.
The dampness of the rain and the virus and the realities of aloneness are pervasive. They are enough to make you feel sick, even if you are not. There are only so many articles I can read about sore throats before I feel like my throat is sore.
Misery and confusion surround us. It’s tough right now. For some of you it’s brutal. My friend texted me that her daughter just misses her friends. A four year old doesn’t understand her misery. At least we understand ours.
The truth is that it will eventually stop raining in LA. Just as we know we will get through this crisis. We may have some leaks to patch up. Things will look very different. Society will look different. We will look different.
It’s never been more radiant in LA, despite the rain. Because of the rain. Our air has never been this clean (obviously the reduction in traffic has also helped immensely).
For sure, the sun comes out after the rain. We can be optimistic and know that this too shall pass. We are thankfully not in a nuclear winter (I mean, talk about perspective!). But that’s not my point.
None of us have the power to stop it raining. We can’t panic the rain away. We can’t toilet-paper purchase the rain away. We can’t plan the rain away. We can lessen its impact, we can put buckets under the leaks, but it’s still going to rain.
There is joyfulness in the moment after being caught in a rain-shower. The moment when you stop resisting the inevitable. You know you will get soaked, your hair will be a disaster, your day inconvenienced. Regardless, you let go and get wet. That’s our work right now. As painful and disappointing and depressing and frustrating and lonely and frightening as this whole mess is.
Just be in it. See it for what it is. Stop resisting it. Look for the opportunity. Look for the unexpected. I promise you that even in the darkest moments of our lives there is magic lurking.