The Rules of Nature

For a few minutes this afternoon, the sky cracked open and dark clouds poured out their colors, streaky silver and grays that somehow made my grass greener, the inky indigo sky looked painted on, the world seemed to say, "Look at me, look at all this life, even now in the middle of a storm."

I've been thinking a lot about the last year, about how hard it was at times to get out of bed, to brush my teeth, to smile when all I wanted to do was cry and scream and wonder why things hadn't gone as I'd planned.  I think the lesson I was supposed to learn--the lesson I am still learning--is that no matter what you think you want, what you need will, eventually, materialize.  You just have to try not to resist it, to open yourself, to give up any and all semblance of control and just keep breathing.

The sky, this afternoon, didn't fight the storm, it opened itself to the rain, the thunder, the strange lightning that seemed to be right beyond my windows.  And now, just a short time later, the sun is pushing through and the bright white edges of post-storm clouds are rubbing elbows with gray cousins, making way for light and dark because, as it turns out, the world big enough for both.

I don't always look up from my life long enough to see the miracle of mid-afternoon storm clouds.  I did today, and for that I am thankful.

I hope you, dear reader find tim to close your eyes, to breathe, to accept that whatever storm is raging in will, if only by the sheer rules of nature, eventually end, and give way (I promise) to sun.