I know I can't possibly be the only person out here that finds living in an era of pervasive sensationalization ...
Exhausting.
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure two back-to-back atmospheric rivers in June is a rare event, and an inch (or thereabouts) of rainfall in a single day at the beginning of Summer is a little weird, even for the Pacific Northwest, but also, like, so what? I don't mean that to be as flippant as it sounds, or maybe I should. Maybe I should be as flippant as possible about it to counter the emotional frenzy, and chaotic anxiety the headlining stories where whipping up in the days leading into the 3 days of a warm Summer rain, and clean air that we experienced (something we'll be begging for in the next couple of months when Fire-Season is in full swing). It's just that there are so many things happening in the world that we can legitimately be freaking out about right now that I just find a dab of rain in Washington profoundly underwhelming. I know in other places, that much rain, that fast can come with a whole host of problems; flash floods, landslides, multi-car pileups, but here it was wet ... And life went on. Sure there were a few power outages, however, the rest of us with power simply turned off our heat, and threw open the doors and windows to take maximum advantage of the purifying nature of a good ol' balmy rain storm.
As for me? I needed it.
I needed to hear the rain. I needed to see the rain. Feel the rain. Cry in the rain ... And breathe again. Lately, I'm convinced, I've been the busiest person on Earth accomplishing exactly nothing. None of that is true, of course. There are people far busier, and there is value in my work and effort, plus I have been able to crush most of my to-do lists. The problem is, I've had to change all of my lists from things that I WANT to do, to things that I absolutely HAVE to do - which are a lot less fun, and (sadly) leave me feeling a lot less satisfied once done & dusted. That probably reeks of arrested development of some sort, but all I mean is that there has to be a balance to life. When you've done the work, and you're gratitude-d out, and you've savored the small stuff to infinity, and you've "self-cared" yourself to the pits of Hell and back, the bottom line is:
It can't all be toil.
The rain, in what ever way, and for what ever reason, swiftly and efficiently disrupted the recent order of things, and for that I am immensely grateful.
The pause.
The reset.
The difficult conversations with words that were hard to hear, and sometimes harder to say. I needed it all. I simply could not go one more moment with things as they were, and thankfully something more than the skies broke open this week. Everything is changing (once again) and as always I have very little insight into what the future actually holds, though I know there are lessons upon lessons I'm supposed to be learning, and perhaps in the quiet of the coming weeks I'll have the space to actually receive them.
Until then, stay cool everybody, both literally and figuratively. God willing, I'll be hooking up my air conditioners tomorrow, myself. Yes "-ers", I know how bourgeois that sounds, but if I were actually wealthy I'd have a slick hvac system that kept every inch of my home the temperature of a walk-in refrigerator, and I wouldn't need to schlep my portable R2D2 lookin' dudes around season to season. And please don't judge me for ruining the environment. I do believe in each of us being good custodians of our Earth while we're here, but I know for sure I'm also not going to use paper straws, or die of heatstroke while corporations pump poison into our water systems with complete abandon, and the Kim Kardashians of the world fly to & from Paris for a slice of cheesecake.
xoxo
