Dancing In The Rain

A friend of mine used the following for her Facebook status the other day: "Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass, it is about learning to dance in the rain".

She told me I could use it. She had "borrowed" it from someone else. So it is uncredited, and I hope I got it right. I'm pretty sure I at least got it close to correct.

While I was thinking about this earlier this afternoon I discovered a companion phrase. A couple of years ago I had to give up watching "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" because I ended up crying through most of it. It became too draining. But I stumbled on a rerun episode today and watched it. And yes, I cried. But that is beside the point.

In this episode a husband and father of four died at a young age of cancer. The design team built a memorial bench and inscribed one of his signature phrases. "There are plenty of things to think about, but nothing to worry about." I believe his name was Matt Keopke.

To me, the two sentiments go together. So much in our world is out of our control. Out of our hands. So why worry? Will it change anything? Probably not. To me, not worrying is an example of learning to dance in the rain.

Life brings storms. It could be health issues, job worries, marital problems. Any of these and so many other things can be the storms in our lives. Life is all about how you handle those "storms".

Another phrase I particularly like starts like this: "Life is not about the destination, it is about the journey." There are lots of endings to the phrase but I like the beginning. I know there are folks who will disagree. To them life is all about getting to Heaven some day so it is about the destination - and the journey. You can only get there by living a good life. But I still want to focus on the journey.

Dance in the rain. Sitting around and fretting about things you can't change won't actually get you anywhere. Can actually make things worse. Learn to roll with the punches. Take what you're handed and make lemonade, or margaritas, or lemon chess squares; whatever makes you happy.

And don't wish for the storm to pass too quickly. Often the turbulent times in our lives are when we learn the most about ourselves. Something inside, our true nature, gets revealed when we are faced with problems or adversity. We sometimes get to see ourselves as others see us, or how we want to be.

We get handed many opportunities in the course of a lifetime to watch the storm clouds gather. We can hear the thunder off in the distance. You have a choice. Sit back and wait. Someone else will take care of the problem or it will resolve itself in time. Or dance. Kick off your shoes and get out there.

Dance.

Which makes me think of another quote. I'm not sure of the whole thing, but part of it says "Dance like no one is watching."