6/1/15, Rising Above the Clouds

Hi Everyone,

How are you?? All is good with you, I hope!!!

The week has been insanely busy yet again. The bats flying in the windows are not quite as large, but it’s the tennis game of life, where a problem heads at us, we hit it to the opposite side of the court, it comes back at us again, and back and forth it goes, until eventually it’s solved, but sometimes that takes time. Also, if you have a big life, with a lot of people in it, inevitably, a lot of “stuff” happens that you have to deal with every day. I wear many hats in my daily life. I’m an employer, and also an employee of sorts, since I produce work for a publishing house, several of them in many countries and they pay me, so that makes me an employee and they make the rules, as employers do. I work with and for many people, with different personalities and opinions. I am the mother of eight adults, who are wonderful people, but I worry about them at times, as mothers do, and we don’t always agree either (although they are extremely reasonable and nice people!!). But there are bound to be bumps in our lives. And then there are the people in the outer circle of one’s life who are difficult, or jealous, or not always honest, who can really make our lives miserable if they work at it. It’s a lot of balls to keep in the air. And even if you’re a Mom at home, driving car pool for three kids, and trying to get them to school on time, and their soccer games, and make sure they do their homework and are doing okay in school, you have your hands full. We all do. And there are plenty of opportunities for challenges every day. If you live alone in an apartment you haven’t left in 10 years, have one single artificial plant, and a plastic fish, your life should be pretty simple. But anything more than that and you’re going to be dealing with difficult things at times—-and also opportunities for great things. But life moves fast these days, and most of us do wear several hats and we have to switch gears constantly, as partner, parent, employee, employer, friend. Just keeping up with texts and emails takes a lot of time out of our day. And some days, I feel like I will never catch up, and probably you feel that way too. Not to mention the people who encroach on our lives, don’t wish us well, intrude on us, and really put some energy into messing up our day, and there are people like that in all our lives too. (I wish they would find something else to do!!! and stay away from me!!).

I was reminded of an insight I had a year or two ago when I was flying somewhere. I got on the plane in a driving rainstorm, the weather was absolutely awful. Gray weather, hard rain, thunder, and when the plane took off, a lot of bumps and turbulence. It seemed like it was going to be a miserable flight, and it was hard to believe that there was sun anywhere in the world. We bumped around for about ten or fifteen minutes, as the storm raged on, and we went through a huge ceiling of clouds as we gained altitude, and suddenly the plane pierced through the clouds, and we were in the bluest sky I’d ever seen, with brilliant sun all around us. The storm and the clouds were below us, the turbulence stopped, and we flew on our way in gorgeous weather, on a smooth flight to our destination. As we came through the clouds that day into the blue sunny skies, I suddenly realized how similar to life it was, we are buried in our problems, drenched to the skin in a driving rain, we hear thunder above us, and the whole world seems dark, and suddenly we come through the clouds into a golden day. It’s hard to remember that there are blue skies up there and bright sunshine when all we see is evidence of the storm. Some clouds take longer to get through, some problems are harder to solve. Even a bad cold or flu or a sprained ankle can make us feel lousy and as though we’ll never feel better again. Or a more serious health problem can take longer to go away, or a relationship problem, or something with our kids, or problems on the job. But sooner or later, we get through those clouds, back into sunshine and blue skies, and we realize that the dark horizons are not the only view of the world. Somewhere up there, are sunny skies and better days, and the problems will be solved. It was a great reminder to me that even when you can’t see the blue skies, they’re there. I tend to be very Johnny One Note in my view of life, if things are hard or not going well, I forget that the problems will get solved. I get impatient and tired of feeling miserable. But when we’re back in those blue skies, there is nothing better. We all need to remember that the blue skies are there, even when we can’t see them, and the storm will pass.

I don’t usually respond to individual questions in this blog, although I wish I could. But a very kind woman wrote in the comments recently that she lost her son a year ago and she is still very sad. I know how hard that is and I’ve been there myself. I still miss my son Nick terribly after many years. But the first year is the hardest, and it will get better with time. Eventually you find your peace about it, and even though you miss them, you cherish the good times and the missing isn’t the agony that it was at first. I just wanted to encourage her to hang on, and know that the sorrow will be gentled by time.

And for the rest of us, with smaller everyday problems, the storm will end, and we will come through the clouds and they will be below us as we sail into blue sunny skies. It’s a good thing to keep in mind. Have a great week!!

Love, Danielle