Sunshine and Rain: They Are What They Are--A Paragraph a Day

As I've grown older (and older and older), I've come to realize just how important the weather is to us if we want to develop our ability to accept things as they are and to live with them without complaining or stressing out about them.  Today was a perfect example of the weather doing what it wants to do--a cloudy and rainy Saturday when many people would have loved to experience "better" weather for their weekend.  But the weather is what it is, and there's absolutely nothing that we can do about it.  And that's for the better.  Realizing that we can't change it helps us to accept it, and then to adapt to it as it is.  No, we can't go for a nice long walk in t-shirts and shorts, but we can get out the umbrella and go for a nice shorter walk.  We probably aren't going to go to the pool or the lake to go swimming, but it can be a nice day for sitting inside and reading a good book.  There's a lot that we can do on such a day, and it makes for a very good metaphor for the rest of life, too--there's plenty that we can do nothing about, but once we accept things for what they are, we can deal with them for exactly what they are and not wish that they were different.  I've spent much time in my life wishing things were different, and it's been time not very well used, perhaps even wasted.  So I've come to love the weather and whatever it brings me, and not expect it to be anything other than what it is.  And when I do accept it, who knows?  I may even come to love it for just what it is.