Life Lessons From a Rainy Day
How to be happy and optimistic in life
“Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add colour to my sunset sky.” — Rabindranath Tagore
Whenever the thought of a wet rainy day snuggles into my mind, two conflicting ideas come up.
One that appears of spending a rainy day pleasurably, watching a nail-biting suspense thriller movie or maybe a James Bond movie, while munching a pack of popcorn all along. And on some serene moments, becoming nostalgic and journaling about life experiences.
In contrast, the very idea of the chaos created in my sublime mind by images of traffic jam, harsh wind and the big droplets of rain. The thought that petrifies me is of being unwillingly getting drenched, escaping waterlogging and go out to complete some mundane errand.
Though I am not a genuine pluviophile, at times on some rainy days, I would look out of the window and enjoy the musky smell of fresh rain and be amazed at the beauty of raindrops.
In all this milieu, it’s compelling to admit that a rainy day at any given point of time among all the other seasons does teach us valuable life lessons, and this is what I want to share in this post.
The lessons, are unique in itself and hold a profound impact on our lives with various intensity. It all depends on our perspective. Hence I have not listed these essential lessons in any order of importance.
Lesson # 1 — Nurture Your Talent
The rain has an inherent quality of nurturing, with no rain nature suffers, it would lead up to an unthinkable disaster of drought subsequently succeeding to famine, hunger and death. Hence this nurturing is of paramount importance to get nature going. Nurturing by rain reminds us of nurturing our innate talent, our goodness.
Each of us blessed with an innate talent(s) of our own. Some consciously try to discover these talents, and some leave it for the chance to be found; nonetheless, we all need to nurture these for the good and betterment of others and ourselves.
“Talent is an accident of genes, and a responsibility.” — Alan Rickman
Life is too precious not to realise our talents and use is to provide value to society. This analogy can be seen and perceived in many areas of life or professions.
For example, if one is a writer, having an innate quality of weaving words. Sharing their experience and life lessons would help other writers become better at their craft. They can publish words that compel a variety of readers to take meaningful actions in their life and become better.
Or
A salesperson, realising and acknowledging the existence of his own sales skill can hone this skill and transcend beyond just selling, trading wholeheartedly, by highlighting and bringing the best how a particular product or services can benefit his customer. Thus a connection, a meaningful union can be established between the customer and service or a product.
Lesson # 2 — Live Life in the Present, be Mindful and Live Consciously
‘The world is continuous flux and is impermanent’ — Buddha
Many of us take life for granted in the sense that we allow many petty worries to consume us so much that we forget seeing and enjoy little things in life. A rainy day calls us to take a more serene and in-depth look at life. As Buddha says, everything is impermanent.
If impermanence is an ultimate reality, then why waste a single moment?
Living in the moment allows you to work harder to give your best in every single shot in various areas of life, whether it’s your relationships, passion, careers, etc.
Nothing makes life more meaningful and happy than being present at the moment,
Being fully present in the conversation with your partner, managers, teammates and being fully committed to your work, passion and craft — and genuinely focussing on all those things that matter the most would bring the best in you.
In the work area, one can cherish small wins, i.e. being appreciative of even small success of sales, sharing with coworkers an appreciation received from a client, showing gratitude to a colleague for saving your day by a little thank you note.
Lesson # 3 — It’s All About Being Optimistic
The sight of a rainbow, when the sun comes up after long hours of constant raining, that’s a sight to behold!
The image of rainbow gives us hope that in our darkest hours, we should remain optimistic that there would be an end to the dark tunnel of life’s challenges. Every dark hour of self-doubt, mindless focus on judgements and opinions of others, should not be given undue importance in life.
Life is precious, and is too short to be wasted in these dark tunnels; instead, we should cherish the vibrancy of each moment in our life, be more receptive to our inner calling.
Though just being optimistic would not serve the purpose, we have to be mindful of the actions that we can consciously take, that may lead us to experience better things in life.
Lesson # 4 — Being Resilient
There are times when rain brings in lots of harshnesses; it can show its nasty side accompanied by a thunderstorm, strong winds. In all this, it can only uproot those things that are weak in their foundations.
When a tragedy strikes in a family or a community. It’s the firm foundation of love, support and understanding that helps the grieving individuals cope up with terrible times.
When a team suffers a setback in delivering the desired result, it’s the firm foundation of teamwork that helps member to outplay the failing results.
It’s up to us to decide how deep and robust we must build our foundations which cannot weather off in dark times.
In Conclusion
I feel that we can either spend our life on the brink of disappointment and regrets or look at the sunnier side of life. We can make a conscious choice and take actions being mindful, passionately working towards things that matter the most, living in the moment and appreciating life and the little gifts it showers on us till we reach our sunset moment.
