A Bit About A Storm

So here's the deal. You don't know everything. Neither do I. It sucks. To make matters worse, there's this lovely little thing that creeps into our lives as a natural byproduct of this lack of omniscience. It annoys us. It holds us back and tells us "Nope...bad idea..." It's called doubt. But you know what? It's a good thing. Feel free to stop and take a minute to roll your eyes or cough in surprise. I don't mind. I'm not crazy, I promise, but I also promise I'm a pretty fair expert on the topic.

WARNING: Great big, possibly cheesy metaphor incoming. Brace yourself.

Here's the thing with doubt: it's a great big storm cloud. But when you shift your focus a little, even the darkest of storms can have wonderful meaning...

I live in a place where thunder rolls and storms come in as big black clouds that darken your day and put you in a grumpy mood just because they can. Sounds pretty depressing right? Well there's also something unique about these storms that I have come to love and look forward to. Just before a storm, before the rain and lightning and commotion, there's a stillness, you know, the calm before the storm? In this calm, you can feel the storm coming in. It's not the energy crackling around you before a lightning strike or the feeling of a chill wind accompanying the storm. It's not even a foreboding feeling of impending doom as the common uses of "The calm before the storm" usually refer to. In reality, it's an anticipation of the potential replenishment. Personally, I think it's entirely possible that it springs from a plethora of life dancing at the idea that they might survive the storm and enjoy the rejuvenating nourishment that comes from a good rain. The grass, the trees, the animals, they don't know of any impending danger any more than we do. Do we know if our house is about to get struck by lightning and burn down? Nope. Could it? Maybe. Could it hail like crazy and turn our car into something that resembles more of a golf ball than a reliable method of transportation? Yup. It could. But there's plenty of time to tell a storm is coming and worry about the danger. In this brief period before the rain comes, the thought comes..."My roses could really use the extra rain..." or "It's been so hot lately, I'm glad for the cool reprieve..." I have complete faith that the plants and trees and animals have similar thoughts processes.  When you take a deep breath, and breathe in the air around you, you can perceive this calm.

Then the storm comes. That part sucks. There's no avoiding it. Anyone who's stuck outside and exposed in a storm has a bad day. Even in a car if you're driving through a good storm, you might see a little cool-looking lightning and stuff, but you're still not gonna be the happiest person on the road that day. So you weather the storm and keep going. Maybe you huddle up under a blanket and watch the pretty lightning outside the window? Or maybe you curl up in bed and pull several pillows over your head to drown out the drumming of rain on your roof while you're trying to sleep.

Eventually the storm passes. You'll wake up, or get out of your comfy spot by the fire, go have a look outside, and the storm will have passed over. And what will you find at this moment? More calm! That's right! This is the BEST part. You'd forgotten. There's a storm BEFORE the calm. (If my buddy Jake reads this he's going to have a really happy moment as soon as he reads that bit about the storm before the calm...) There may be a few isolated raindrops coming off of trees and things, some different places recovering from the fact that they didn't have as good of fortune as you, maybe the tree out front had a bad day and got zapped by lightning...but for the most part, all is well. Step outside, and take a deep breath again. It's there, a similar calm to what was there before the storm. But it's a little different this time. What's the difference? Gratification. Life around you emits an aura of peace because despite the dark cloud that came over and dropped all sorts of natural nonsense on the area, everything is still okay. Life goes on. The world around you has been nourished and survived through a storm. That's a wonderful feeling. If you're really paying attention, you can't help but smile at the wonderful feeling.

So are you having doubts about something? Is there a job you're really thinking about taking, but maybe you aren't sure if it's the right way to go? Or maybe a girl (or guy...) that you really like that you aren't sure you really want to tell about it? Well it's time for a storm again. Maybe this storm will bring a tornado with it. It's true. But maybe not? Maybe all this storm will be for you is a source of nourishment and growth. Doubt creeps in slowly, rolling thunder along the way. The threat of natural disaster looms in the air. But, if you keep going, don't let it completely cloud over your life, and take a brief moment right before you think the storm is about to hit and take a deep breath, you'll feel the calm. If you don't, doubt's gonna get the best of you, and this entire storm is going to be a miserable experience, and you'll miss all the good that comes from it. But if you do stop and feel that peace,  you'll realize all of the potential for good things ahead that spring from this storm. Maybe things will go bad. But maybe they won't and you'll wind up better off! What's the bad news? There's gonna be a storm. Some way or another the storm IS coming. All you can do is make sure you're as prepared as you can be. And then...weather the storm. Just get through it. Doubts are gonna come. Things aren't going to go as well as you thought they might. But remember that you stopped and felt that calm. Remember it's going to be okay. And guess what! The storm will pass. And when it does, look around and take in a deep breath again. You'll feel that gratification. That feeling of "I made it!" that makes life so sweet and makes achievement something so glorious to feel.

Doubt is a silly thing that bothers us, and there's nothing really that we can do about it. Sometimes it gets to us and ruins our day and before we know it the storm's passed and we're in a bad mood because there was a storm. But doubts keep us in check; they remind us that we don't know everything. They give us an opportunity to keep thinking, or to keep looking at things differently. And all we have to do, is take a second to look around at the right moments, and we see how we can overcome this thing called doubt. Using the lessons it has to teach us, we can utilize it as a reinvigorating injection of defiance and motivation. "I can do this!" is what springs from doubt when we look at it with the right point of view. And with this renewed sense of purpose we pick up speed and move that much further towards what we're out to accomplish; all because of this wonderfully obnoxious thing called doubt.

I hope you all enjoy the holidays, and keep doubt from clouding over you too much at this time when your thoughts are drawn to the things that you really care about.

And as always, remember that the simple things that make life wonderful are right there in front of you. You just have to look at them in the right light.