Last week I told a little story about the night my wife and I got caught in a storm on one of our date nights and had little choice but to make the most of the experience. I’ve spent the last few days thinking about this still, especially in the wake of the recent storms that have been making their way through Western Europe, because this is storm season after all.
I’ve previously written how life is all about seasons, and how each one brings its own set of challenges and opportunities. The storms of Autumn and Winter may bring turbulence – amongst other things – and leave untold destruction in their wake, but one thing that’s certain is that winter will give way to Spring, and Spring will bring about new life. While we shelter from the storms of life, it helps to remember that all things pass and that it’s this dynamic nature of our world that keeps things in balance and makes life worth living.
Life is all about ebbs and flows. Sure, it is tempting to wish for a world where it’s 25 degrees and sunny all the time, but if we don’t get rained on once in a while, not only will the planet be starved of all the water it needs to ensure the survival of our (and other) species, but we’ll find that all that pleasurable warm weather will start to lose its appeal, and we might even start to long for the days when it’s chilly outside and we can cosy up to a warm fireplace with our favourite hot beverage.
This is all to say that in life and in art, we’ll get soaked once in a while. I’ve told the story of one of the worst gigs I ever played a few years ago, where there were only 2 people in attendance – the sound engineer and the person behind the bar. They both had to be there, so really, there was no one there of their own volition. It seemed devastating at the time, but now it’s just a funny story, something I can look back on and smile. What’s even better is that there’s hardly any gig experience that comes close to how low I felt in that moment, so even if I go out to play a gig this week and it turns out pretty bad, it probably won’t be as bad as that gig. In other words, the low points in our journey help us contextualise and appreciate the high points.
We might be tempted to wish away the rain, but perhaps what we should do is embrace and celebrate it for what it is. We should acknowledge that it is par for the course for the season we find ourselves in, and like all things, it won’t last forever, even though it may not feel like it in the moment. What’s more, we can always seek solace in the fact that if we survive the storm, we just might live to see the sun shine again
P.S.: My middle-grade novella, A Hollade Christmas, and my debut non-fiction book, Art Is The Way, are out everywhere now. You can get them in all good bookstores and from all major online vendors.