Rainy Days

Sitting, listening to the rain. Cat on my lap, dog by my side.  We don’t get many long rainy days here in Florida.  Storms usually blow in, and blow right back out, leaving everything hotter and steamier than before.  So this?  This is nice.  Peaceful.  Relaxing.

I have nothing to complain about and everything to be grateful for.  And so I am increasingly surprised by the level of negativity – and so I suspect, unhappiness – that has become so prevalent of late.  Social media is the usual platform on which we see this robust outpouring of hatred and dissatisfaction, but much of that comes directly from incidents on our hometown streets, in our local stores, and in our children’s schools, shared via cell phone videos. Like it’s something to be proud of.  Sad, really.

We heard a neighbor of ours had died the other day at 49 years young.  We see the tragedy of people dying at a young age all the time.  Sometimes on the news, when it’s a celebrity, or when it’s an everyday person who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, meeting an untimely death in an apparently newsworthy way.  And I’m sure we all know someone who has died from a debilitating disease. Time is short.

Elijah Cummings, a legend we recently lost, recited this poem – I Only Have a Minute, by Dr. Benjamin E. Mays – when speaking to Congress for his first time. It bears repeating now, during these dark and troubled times:

I have only just a minute,
Only sixty seconds in it.
Forced upon me, can’t refuse it.
Didn’t seek it, didn’t choose it.
But it’s up to me to use it.

I must suffer if I lose it.
Give account if I abuse it.
Just a tiny little minute,
but eternity is in it.

Or, in the words of author Gretchen Rubin, “The days are long, but the years are short.”

Accept peace whenever – and wherever – you find it.

Namaste 🙏

~jwb~