An occasional series based on stuff that hangs in my room… or my heart.
I don’t remember where I first saw this adage. It had to be at least five years ago, because I put it front and center on my writing website, and it’s still there today:
Life isn’t about how you weather the storm. It’s about how you dance in the rain.
Singing in the rain is the same principle (and, while 
embarrassing for me in the literal sense, much less embarrassing than dancing anyway). Storms come to us all. We can grit our teeth, whine, complain, curse, shake our fists, and do a whole lot of other things that won’t change anything, inside or out. Or we can look for the joy in the situation. And even amid a crushing diagnosis, a financial failure, or a betrayal, there is joy.
I’ve been in love three times in my life, and believe I was loved in return each time. The end of each was difficult, whether I initiated it or it was a mutual decision. But the easiest end came in the one where I didn’t stew about how I was wronged or how I had wronged the other person. I focused on all I had learned from him, and the strength he had provided at the moment I needed it most. Sure, there were some tears. But the singing in that rain came quickly.
The older I get, the worse I sing–just ask anyone who’s heard me. But I also hope that sharing my rain stories and the way a little gratitude and faith can bring out the sun helps someone along the way.
