I went to visit Scotland one summer for about three weeks. It was in August. I had read, in the travel guides, that it rained quite a bit, so I took my long duster and a leather cowboy hat along with water proof hiking boots with me just in case. I took all of the other things one would take on a vacation: toothpaste; a toothbrush; clothing; soap in a case, etc. The most important thing that I took, however, was the duster. It ended up raining 18 days out of the 21. Even through all of the rain the place was beautiful. It seemed like returning home, for some reason. We rented a car and drove all over Scotland on the wrong side of the road. What I mean by the wrong side is the one that I wasnt used to driving. On top of it all, the car had a stick shift so we had to shift gears on the other side with a different hand and had to work the clutch with a different foot. Despite this discomfort and running off the edge of the narrower highways several times, we noticed more beauty than I thought possible. All along the way we saw beautiful rich green glens and little white sheep. Waterfalls were pouring down grass covered cliffs and hills. The clouds were moving fast changing the weather from viscious downpour to drizzle, to a brief bit of sun, all very fast. The clouds were moving quickly and changing like the patterns and the fortunes and misfortunes of our lives. There was a lot of rain and a lot of motion. Within all of the rain and drudge I could see a different type of beauty: the type that exists in the midst of the rain. It was different, of course, than the beauty of bright, sunny days, but the beauty was still there and still as power. The same can be said about the rain, grayness and downpours in our lives. Some times we seem to be in the midst of turmoil. Sometimes we find that we are very sad. Things just dont seem to be going right. There seems to be trouble all around us and none of our coping skills are working. We cleverly try to use the system to help us. We use all of our old tricks, but they dont seem to work. It seems like the system is attempting to expel us. But then something happens. When we give up on our tricks and when we work from our center, being the best person that we can be in the midst of the trouble. When we are true to our belief systems and to our hearts, even when things arent going right, something happens: we begin to see the beauty in the rain. We begin to see the beauty in our life in the midst of all the heart break and all of the storms. We realize that life is beautiful and that the beauty is always there. The experiences that we have, all of them, are the beauty. Knowing this, we live life fully and completely in the times of trouble as well in the times of plenty, and we find that the beauty that life offers is always there available for us if we only open our eyes to see it and feel it. There is a popular saying that this is life, it is not a dress rehearsal. There is no time for us to wait to live. We cannot mourn or bury ourselves in the depth of our homes or hearths waiting for the storm clouds to pass so we can live, because that may never happen. It may rain 18 days out of 21. We may need to go out, to walk, to drive, to notice the beauty in the midst of the rain. And then, when the sun comes out, it will not fulfill a need for us, it will just be a little icing on the top of the cake called life. |
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