Don't wait for things to get better,
Life will always be complicated.
Learn to be happy right now
Otherwise, you will run out of time
When I thought about" Dancing in the Rain", I had memories that made me smile, When I was a little girl, we use to take shampoo and go out in the rain and wash our hair. For some reason it made us feel refreshed, was always fun to do and trying to beat the rain from stopping and leaving our hair full of sudds. When we were done our hair felt so soft and refreshed. Totally a different kind of washing in the rain.
I planned a vacation with my sons. I think they were around eight. That year for school we learned about Pioneer life and moving out west in a covered wagon, looking for the American Dream. I wanted us to experience being in a covered wagon. I found an organization that takes four-day trips in a covered wagon, they end each night on Amish land, where the Amish would feed us and we pitch tents, or others had campers to sleep in for the night. I had never pitched a tent before and the whole trip was way out of my comfort zone. The worst part was that it rained a lot Rained so much that the path to get to the field for the horses and all of to get food, was muddy and full of horse manure and water and mud. I did not dress for this kind of an adventure and either did my sons. I had to make a decision about my attitude towards this. I had to decide, was I going to grovel in my misery or was I going to take the high road and make a cool memory? I chose to make a memory. I told my sons to take off their shoes and just walk barefoot. I took off my shoes and walked in that mess of mud with all kinds of all things, I laugh about it now as one of my favorite memories. I had the best manicure and the softest feet ever. But I had to walk through shit and get poured on by the rain to get it. I chose to dance in the rain.
Children love mud puddles, there is something about them, that call them. they can't walk by one without jumping and splashing in them. As mothers we look at the mess that it will cause and the outfit that has to be changed. As a Nona I don't have to think about that anymore. I can jump with them and make memories with my grandchildren. I have jumped in many mud puddles and have watch my grandchildren splash in them and embrace their giggles as a memory I hold close to my heart. My grandchildren have asked for my hand as we jumped and tried to splash the hardest, we could get that biggest splash and see how dirty we could get. Precious memories.
When you can get a older kid to wash and take a shower out in the rain, you go for it!! You spend the time laughing so hard you almost pee your pants. My oldest grandson, I had talked him into showering outside. I never thought he would ever do it. but he did and laughed through the whole thing, there is something about rain that can either depress you or make you dance in it while lathering up with body wash and washing the dirt all away.
Not all the time is it easy to just dance in the rain. Storms come and take our breathe away. They try to swallow us up and make us feel like this will never end, they can create a darkness that seems to never bring morning again. I have lived in the south now for a couple of years and these rainstorms are nothing to fool around with. I have been scared during a thunderstorm here, more so than a snowstorm in Buffalo, where I use to live. I have been scared and catch myself holding my breath until I get through the storm. I just had a friend say, I have watched you laugh until the darkness ended. Storms take me 24 hours to get my grip on them and then I choose not to see darkness anymore but, the rainbow on the other side. In the south, there is something that happens after a storm. its calm and full of tranquility a peace comes, and you feel you are finally breathing again.
I am not saying that storms are easy to go through, but, like Jesus I want to come to a point in my life, that I am not the frantic one trying to wake him up to tell him I am in a storm. I want to be the one that can sleep through them because I know this too shall pass. I want to rest assure that he has gone before me and has calmed the storm right at the right moment and peace happens within my soul. I want to see a storm in a distant and get ready for it with my boots, rain jacket, and umbrella and the anticipation to dancing in the rain. I want to have the innocence of a child and yell; Nona." hold my hand as we jump and make splashes in the puddle."
Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, It's about learning to Dance in the rain.
Maybe I can't stop the downpour, but I will always join you for the walk in the rain.
