19th
A Rainy Day
As I sit here quietly listening to the beautiful and unique sounds of thunder breaking the silence that encompass my home, I am reminded of memories of my childhood days when I would sit for hours on end watching storms from the comforts of the garage. I would sit as close as possible to the outside world with only a few feet of roof preventing the raindrops from becoming drenched and trembling from the coldness that would surely develop soon afterward. It is a pleasant memory of watching mother nature become ever so green as the leaves that covered the sky and the grass that covered the ground beneath as they drank up the droplets of water falling from the darkened clouds that shaded me from the sun which allowed just enough light to pass through so that I may soak in the beauty of the world around me.
I sit there as a young boy with a full and unknown life ahead of him, I dream about what my future has in store for me, what accomplishments I will achieve and while life I will choose to live. For this moment in my life my only worries, struggles, problems and stresses of the modern world come from finishing my homework by a certain date and what kind of grades I will make. I don’t think about the mistakes I’ll make when I become an adult but instead think of what will happen on the next day of school. Will I get in trouble and have to write my name on the blackboard? Will I leave my schoolbooks at home? Will I even make it to school or will I catch the bus on time? Will the cute girl in class talk to me and what will she say? Will someone make fun of me for what I’m wearing? Will I have to stand up in front of the class to read a written report? Am I going to forget my lunch money or will I run to the playground with joy only to find myself tripping and embarrassing myself?
It’s funny to look back on those days and remember the many things that were important to me then doesn’t really matter anymore to me now. As a young boy I knew it all and was on top of the world, even when my face was down on the dirt after a nasty spill. While each year passed I found myself slowly knowing less and less and realize that I know less now than I did back then; not because I was smarter but because I simply had no clue how little I knew. Each day as a child took a year as I watched the clock to become an adult; now each year takes only a day as I watch the clock spin faster and faster.
The things we take for granted every day of our lives are often overlooked because we punish ourselves worrying about tomorrow when we forget about today and regret yesterday. It’s an endless cycle, a battle we have within all of us, to take that first step into tomorrow but we’re worried it may be too late.
What is it we take for granted exactly? Everything and nothing all rolled into one would be my answer. We take for granted the monetary possessions we’ve gathered over the years, the jobs we’ve been blessed with when so many people are out on the streets, the roof over our heads that protect us from the world outside and comfort us as we take for granted the many nothings that we do at home, things like relaxing from a hard day’s work, time that could be spent doing something fun or nothing but enjoying the company of our families and friends, and many times our God given talents that everyone has within them, the one true gift that passions you from the deepest pits of your heart in a way that can’t be described in words or expressions.
With many of my childhood struggles being so important to me so many years ago, yet so irrelevant today, I wonder what struggles I am having today that are going to be irrelevant in the years to come, assuming our almighty God above grants us a tomorrow. Will any of my pitfalls of today have any real consequence on me tomorrow other than shaping who I will become, or will they be long forgotten memories as are the many years I spent as a young boy sitting only a few feet away from the coldness of the rain, a time in my life when I had no history behind me but a lifetime ahead of me? Was worrying about the small things such as turning in my homework on time any more important than admiring the beauty and wonders of God’s creations came during the rain and after the rain had passed by allowing the sun to shine its bright rays through the parting clouds with the occasional rainbow, or were both equally as important?
What did you take for granted yesterday? What will you take for granted tomorrow? When the storm settles, will you look back at the storm and think of how wonderful it was or will you simply be thankful for another clear day filled with the warmth of the sun in the bright blue sky?
The rain is my scrapbook of memories, a photo album if you will, of what happened yesterday and how it leads me to where I am today and where I’ll end up tomorrow. It reminds me that there are so many things that I stress out about when truth be told, the things that worry me the most are of the least importance. At this very moment you’re probably already thinking of the one thing in your life that stresses you out the most and know that it won’t be important tomorrow, and the one thing in your life that you take for granted and yet have so much passion for that you can’t stop thinking about it throughout your day. So why are you still sitting on your butt and reading this long memory?
Everyone makes a New Year’s resolution to become a better person in his or her own way and those resolutions usually have something to do with the two things I mentioned previously; the one thing that is killing you inside and out but will be of no use to you tomorrow and the one thing that is killing you to get out but you’re too busy dealing with the first to take a step forward, or even backward if you’ve run into a brick wall in life. Why do we have to wait until a New Year to start making these choices that affect us daily when we could start on them today? Why not spend tomorrow looking back and today and instead of thinking of how much you wish you had done something, you’ll be happier knowing you did it? What is your resolution for today?
May your day be blessed by our Lord above and may all of your dreams become a reality. God bless you from the bottom of my heart. And most of all, God bless our children, the innocent youth who know more than we’ll ever know that will one day walk in our footsteps and come across the same crossroads that each of us take on a daily basis and their journey to get to this point and beyond. God loves you; I love you, and so love yourself and take that first step.
Your brother as one of God’s children,
Jonathan
