Estimated Reading Time 5 Minutes
Hey You! Welcome back to The Vibrant Life Podcast. My name is Emily Romrell and we made it another week, My Friends. It’s crazy how fast time flies but yet in the moment-to-moment struggles of everyday life making it through the week can be an achievement. So if it’s been tough, I’m proud of you for staying the course. Life is challenging but it’s also good. I hope you’ve enjoyed some of the simple pleasures over the week as well. To me that is where the true joys are found, reading a good book, playing cards with friends, eating a delicious home-cooked meal. Those are the little heartbeat moments of a vibrant life. Anyway, I just felt like I needed a reminder, and maybe you did too, that the most important part of living a vibrant life is living it. And that means going through all the ups and downs. Hopefully, we learn some meaningful stuff along the way. That’s really what this podcast is all about.
If you’re loving the podcast as much as I am, please do me a favor. Take two minutes to leave a quick review on iTunes and share the love with your friends. It means a lot.
So this week I want to talk about rain. We tend to think of rain as a downer, literally the sky pours down on us, and we understandably can feel discouraged or depressed. But like the Luke Bryan song, I think it’s important to remember that Rain Is A Good Thing. If we can embrace the rain in our lives, we’re not only going to grow into better people but we’ll be a heck of a lot happier.
If you’re paying attention, you know that Utah along with pretty much all of the Western United States is experiencing a severe drought right now. According to what I’ve found it’s the worst drought since 1956. We are praying for rain and taking extra measures to ration water. Wild fires are a big issue because the land is so dry. Farmers are worried about making it through the summer. It’s stressful to say the least. We need rain.
So why is it that so often we don’t appreciate the rain when it does come? Sometimes we get miffed because weekend plans have to be changed due to stomy weather. I get it. I don’t like dissapointment and gloomy skies any more than you do. But, does it have to take a drought in our lives physically or spiritually for us to appreciate the rainy days?
I feel like I’ve been experiencing some heavy rain lately. Things just are not playing out in my life the way that I think they should. You might say that my game got canceled on account of rain. And it’s hard to miss out on those things that you plan for and look forward to. There is a famous quote that says, “Expectation is the root of all heartache.” I think that’s one of the truest things I’ve ever heard. Sidenote: That quote is widely attributed to William Shakespeare but a lot of sources claim he never said that. But whoever said it was wise. Unfulfilled expectations can cause a lot of pain.
There’s another quote that I love that says, “If you are depressed, you are living in the Past. If you are anxious, living in the future. If you are at peace you are living in the moment.” – Lao Tzu. I’ve realized that I quote Lao Tsu a lot. But that guy knew his stuff. To me living in the moment is appreciating what is rather than focusing on what isn’t, right? So if we can embrace the rain in our lives, even when it is painful, then we don’t have to deal with the added grief of depression or anxiety because we’re focusing on something we can’t change.
Let’s consider the water cycle for a minute. So you probably remember this from gradeschool, but water in the ocean and lakes etc is evaporated by the sun and water molocules collect and condense in the air as clouds. When the water molocules become too heavy then it rains or snows etc and the water comes back down to earth. Why is this important? Well I personally think it’s kind of cool that the amount of the water on the planet is relatively constant. It simply has a cycle of change that it goes through. And that process of change allows water to travel all over the world. It cleans the air and the land. It sweeps away debris and makes room for things things to grow. And water is essential for growth.
The other day I was talking to my dad and he said that we have to deal with hard things so we can grow. My response was that I feel like I’ve been growing a lot lately. And it’s true. But I’m not alone. In the last couple weeks, I’ve personally people who also are in the process of growing. They are dealing with things like divorce, cancer, loneliness, abuse, losing jobs, and the list just goes on. We all have our things. We all have times when we have to deal with the rain in our lives.
But I hope that we can learn from nature and realize the benefits rain has in our lives. Our worth as human beings is a constant. It doesn’t change. We always have the same value which is priceless. But life is a cycle of change. Changes that allow our minds and spirits to travel to higher planes of thought, empathy, and understanding. Hard times that clean out old patterns of behavior that aren’t working, that sweep away the debris of things that we don’t need anymore but might have a hard time letting go of. Then we will have room to grow.
I wrote a song a long time ago called Rainbows when I was struggling. It’s sort of become an anthem in my life. Because I know there is always hope even when we are in the middle of very stormy weather. And after the storm the sun comes out again. But in the meantime, there are rainbows. I’ve shared this song before on my website, but I felt like I wanted to share it with ya’ll on the podcast. So here it is. I hope you have a great week, everybody. Live The Vibrant Life.
Rainbows
Long, long ago, on a boat on the sea,
Was a man named Noah who prayed mightily.
He said Lord, “Help me to understand the pain.
Help me Please, to survive the Rain.”
After forty days were a trial of faith,
Noah looked up with a smile on his face,
There in the sky a rainbow testified,
That no storm will ever overcome,
If you believe in the sun.
There are Rainbows in the sky,
When I feel the rain in my life,
Shining through the darkness and fear,
Are Rainbows the sign of Hope.
In this life there are trials we must face,
And we might not understand the pain,
Everyday I pray to survive the rain.
Now is the time for my trial of faith,
Someday I’ll look up with a smile on my face.
But until that time, the rainbows testify,
That no storm will ever overcome,
If I believe in the sun.
There are rainbows in the sky,
When I feel the rain in my life,
Shining through the darkness and fear,
Are rainbows the sign of hope.
Rainbows are signs of Hope.
