Dance in the Rain

Pearl of Wisdom # 3

Sometimes life sucks.  There’s no way around it.  Like your mom always said, life isn’t fair. 

Many of you know that my father has dementia and my sister and I are taking care of him.  He lives in assisted living, but we pay all the bills, manage the investments, keep track of his medications and lab work, take him to doctors’ appointments, and so on, and so on.  It’s exhausting.  My sister and I never asked for any of this.  I wasn’t prepared for all that was to come (is anyone?).  My sister handles it with complete confidence and grace.  I’m a total mess.  I’ll never forget the first time he forgot who I was.  It was Christmas Eve 2011 at our church.  I tried to talk to him after the service, but he just looked through me.  He smiled as if to say, “What a nice stranger” then walked away.  Yup sometimes life sucks.

So today life sucks.  It’s grey outside, it’s rainy and gloomy, and I’m stressed to the hilt.  I’m tired of looking up at grey skies, tired of dragging my weary butt to work, tired of my dad’s constant “emergencies”, just tired of being a grown up.  Here’s the thing- We can’t change the overall suckiness of the day.  What we can do, though, is chose to dance in the rain.  Whether you want to take that literally or metaphorically is all up to you. 

I was intending it to be a metaphor today, but God had other plans. I was outside dancing when the clouds opened up and poured rain on me.  See:

I could be pissed.  I could curse God and annoy everyone in my office with my grumbling.  OR I could tuck my phone down into my pocket so that it doesn’t get wet (which would further ruin my day) then dance my little tail off.  Why run for shelter?  I’m already wet.  The proverbial ship has already sailed.  So I chose to dance in the rain.  Quite literally.  It reminded me of a time in college where all my friends just decided to go out and dance in a rainstorm.  No real reason.  Just something to do when you’re 19 and carefree.

When was the last time you danced in the rain?  It doesn’t have to be actual rain.  It could be that time you went on a road trip to Tennessee because someone said, “Do you want to go on a road trip to Tennessee?”  It could be getting all your friends to dress like they’re going to the Oscars then just go eat at a dive restaurant.  Maybe it was the time you got a ‘spur-of-the-moment’ tattoo (which I do NOT recommend but kudos for being adventurous).

Bottom line… When was the last time you stepped outside your box and did something that surprised the crap out of the people who know you?  And why not try stepping out again, this time with a different adventure?  What’s holding you back?  You’re already wet.  Might as well go ahead and dance in the rain.