Rain, Rain, and More Rain

And when it rains on your parade, look up rather than down. Without the rain, there would be no rainbow.

Gilbert K. Chesterton

Yesterday it was like the sky opened up.  The rain came down in torrents.  Wonderful for the plants that are about to sprout, but not too wonderful when one is trying to get to work.  I ended up getting off at a different stop because that route, although a longer walk, had scaffolding over it.  The rain also didn't do very well by my house.  It seems that a brick outside had loosened up, and rain water had leaked through.  There is a huge crack where it had once been painted so nicely, and my curtain was drenched.  A puddle of water had to be cleaned from the floor, and we had to remove my beautiful dream catcher before it was ruined....all this at 4 am in the morning.  This is the first 'real' emergency that we have had since we moved in here, and I am waiting to see how long it will take someone to get here to repair it.

This has been a rather 'icky' winter, and I find myself waiting patiently for the first buds of spring to break through the ground after winter's slumber. I'd thought this was going to be a wet winter, but instead of snow, we've had lots of that bone-chilling cold rain.  Spring is the time for renewal, a time of fresh hopes, the season of hope and inspiration;and as in all new beginnings, it is a time it is an opportunity for us to let go of thoughts and habits that add unwanted hurt and stress to our lives.  So, this upcoming weekend, after the shopping and cooking are finished, I am planning to dig out my journal and sort through what is working and what is not working in my life, what I have to let go of and what I should keep. 

I've already begun with my new, more health conscious lifestyle...and that is definitely a keeper.  Planning for retirement is also a keeper, but there are some things that take up time in my life that, hard as it may be for me, just have to go.  My smoking cessation group, for one thing. I know.  I spoke of this awhile back, but I really do hate giving up on things that have meaning for me. And then they made me into an owner, but I just can't do it anymore.   No one can say I haven't done my best to keep it going, but it has come to the point that I find myself posting to myself most of the time. Problem is, every time I prepare myself to make my exit, a newbie pops up, and I find myself just 'having' to be there as the welcome wagon.  And then, after my initial 'thanks for the welcome', the newbie disappears into the sunset. It's like a blog you begin and pour your heart into, but no reads it. And unless you have chosen to use this media as your personal journal, time comes when you let it go.

Smoking cessation  and sodium reduction are my two pet projects...for everyone.  I've become the sodium police here at work, and part of me wonders if my co-workers are not getting sick of hearing me point out the dangers in the food they eat. But, high blood pressure is truly the silent killer...and I am proof of that.  Perhaps I am a bit over-zealous, but it is only because I care so much.  And forget smoking, I am always at my clients, educating them on the dangers and the benefits of quitting.  Sometimes I tend to forget how people once did that to me...and how put off I was that someone was trying to 'stop me from something I loved to do.'  Perhaps backing off should also go on my list of things to do.  

Well, now that I've rambled on and bored most of you with my little tidbits of things to do, I'll leave you with the following before I head out to work.

Hope is wishing something would happen. Faith is believing something will happen. Courage is making something happen. 
Author Unknown