Stroll for Your Soul Day 7

An online resource adapted and used with permission from prayerbanch.ca
Weather Report  The Same Rain

Todays Weather 
It’s the same rain but we don’t all have the same experience.
In the last 2 years, many of us have had to work from home due to Covid lockdowns. I remember one time sitting at my desk and watching the rain bucketing down. I felt a sense of relief and joy knowing that I was safe and dry and with no need to commute to work and worry about getting wet.  It was actually quite wonderful sitting and enjoying the sight and sound of the rain.  The green of the trees and plants brightened, the colour increasing in vibrancy as the rain continued to fall.  The world looked like it was being washed clean and fresh. When the rain slowed, little droplets of water formed on the cherry blossoms and tips of the branches, making the trees appear as if they were covered in tiny diamond jewels. I breathed the view in with gratitude and gave thanks to God for the gift of this abundant and beautiful rain.
Only a couple of hours later, I would read and watch news of the floods that had devastated homes.
It was the same rain, but not the same experience!

Weather with You 
How can the same rain that grows crops, destroy crops?
How can the same rain that fills dams, flood roads?
How can the same rain that makes diamond jewel droplets on cherry blossoms, make rivers of mud flowing with the debris that used to be people’s precious possessions?
How can something that felt safe to me be a danger to my neighbour?
It is hard to reconcile these two sides, the good thing that happens to one person, while simutaneously acknowledging the bad thing someone else is experiencing.
It was the same rain. 
We experience the storms of our own weather systems in different ways to others around us. Tough stuff happens. To everyone at some time, but not to all of us at the same time.  
People often say, “I just tell myself, that there’s always someone worse off than me,” as if this is somehow going to make their tough stuff easier or better.  Weathering the days where we are flooded beyond our strength, is tough. It is okay to acknowledge and own this truth. 

Weather Blessing 
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.