If we lived in an environment where each and every day we had temperatures in the mid 70’s, blue skies dotted with a few clouds here and there, perfectly green hills, a slight breeze and warm nights, every day, every month, every year…would we appreciate it? I’d like to say yes, but is it that we would appreciate it because we have experienced storms, cold days and nights, torrential winds and down right gloomy days? Would we say yes because we have perspective?
Seasons are great metaphors to our life cycles. One day, maybe many many days, and even months or dare I say years, life is beautifully sunny, no real clouds in the forecast, not even a little drizzle. Then, out of nowhere a hurricane comes in, coupled with a tornado, a snow storm and followed with an earthquake! Our sunny days seem gone forever. All we can do is put on our cold weather gear, batten down the hatches and fight the storm. We can trudge through the snow, and find the safety nets we stored for tumultuous days.
Finally, the storm lifts, but in it’s wake there’s destruction. Here’s the real life lesson…did the destruction happen because we were careless and naive and didn’t have a safety net in place? Did the destruction happen because of the way we reacted to the storm? Did the chaos and dishevelment occur because we didn’t want to deal with the uncomfortable situation and instead we went into hiding?
Blizzards and unpredictable weather are going to come in and out of our lives constantly. The beauty is the nice calm weather that emerges after the pandemonium. How we appreciate the fresh air, the warmth of the sun, the calm winds and the newness of the day can be embraced because of the changes, because of the contrast of the seasons.
