It's Raining, It's Pouring

"A Buddhist monk asked his master how to avoid extremes of hot and cold. The master advised: 'When it is cold, be completely cold; when it is hot, be completely hot.' If circumstances are beyond your control, don't invest energy or emotion into them. Ride the reality of the moment. Be empowered by your acceptance."~from 1,001 Ways to Live in the Moment by Barbara Ann Kipfer.

Weather is a good place to start. We have absolutely no control over it, but we complain about it. It is not as if our complaining will change anything, but we still complain. Accepting the weather is a good place to start because it is one of the most obvious parts of life that is out of our control. It is only a beginning, though. Much of what happens in life is out of our control.

In fact, trying to control everything is about as insane it gets. No wonder it makes us crazy. Some people just can't let go and allow life to be what it is. I know that I couldn't, and that was where my suffering began and ended. I had erected a psychic shield that I used to resist any kind of situation that I did not want to accept, even rainy days. Imagine that. I am reminded of the 70's song Feeling Groovy, "You can't stop the rain by complaining," but that is exactly what I did, complain.

And the rain still fell. Until one day someone shared the song Listen to the Falling Rain by Jose Feliciano.

Listen to the falling rain
Listen to it fall
And with every drop of rain
You know I  love you more

Let it rain all night long
Let my love for you grow
strong
Listen to the falling rain
Listen to it fall

Now rain could mean romance and love. It could mean anything I wanted it to mean. It could, also, just be rain. The trouble with making rain mean anything is life is about change. The lover who sang the song is no more, so the rain becomes dreary, cold and lonely. Rain just is. The meaning we give it is just fiction, and that fiction can hurt us.

Acceptance of what is begins with seeing things as they are, not as we are. I used to be a hopeless romantic, and I thought if I gave up my romantic views of life then everything would just be dull, lifeless. Nothing could have been further from the truth. The melancholy that romance often brings, doesn't exist when I see the world as it is, not as I want it to be. All of the emotions that I used to feel, the roller coaster ride from down in the dumps to elation, are more subtle now. I thought I would miss them, but I don't.

Now when it rains, I let it rain. Nothing more, nothing less. Rain is a miracle that captivates me. My tiny garden soaks up the rain and grows. The droplets travel down the window pane, and I watch, mesmerized, no meaning attached. I simply observe.

Rain. Illness. Other people act and circumstances happen. Death. All the same. Life happens, and we can't control most of it. When we refuse to accept it, we suffer. In accepting, we no longer give meaning where no meaning exists. Pure acceptance, "When it is cold be completely cold. When it is hot be completely hot."

...and when it rains, it rains. Period.