Let's get this started!
I have been wanting to start a blog for a very long time, but I have always put if off saying I would never have time to update it, so I will just wait until life is less busy. But then I had to get real with myself today, life doesn't stop being busy, in fact for me it is only going to get busier. I am going to college and only just engaged (to an amazing man I might add) so my life is pretty simple. I mean don't get me wrong, school is stressful and busy but it's pretty simple. Soon I will be married, graduating from school, looking for jobs and then having kids, participating in church, school and community activities. So needless to say, I realized if I don't start a blog now, I never will.
Now let's talk about why I want to blog. I want to share what is on my mind with the people around me. That is basically it. We all experience things that happen in our life and say "If I could just share this with everyone!!!" Well this is how I can do that. We all experience things that are beautiful and makes us so happy that we have to share that ray of sunshine in our lives with other people. On the other hand we have challenges that test us to our limits, experiences that seem to hover over us like a rain cloud. (Now you understand the name of my blog) That is what I want to share with people. The rain clouds and sunshine of my life in hopes that my experiences and thoughts can help the people around me.
In my life I have learned to love the rain clouds and the sunshine. I am from the wonderful state of Washington and grew up with lots of rain, and believe it or not, some sunshine too. I love both equally. The sun seems to lift us makes us happier, but the rain feels (and smells) so cleansing. I like to think of the experiences we have in our lives as just the same. The sunny moments lift us up and bring joy into our lives. The rainy moments cleanse us by refocusing our hearts and minds. I could go on about this topic for days, but this will do for now. I hope that as my life goes on I will grow to love the rainy moments in my life as much as I love the rain and the sunshine. It is so hard when we have a rain cloud hovering over us to look up and dance in the rain or see the break in the clouds that is coming our way. We can always be assured though that the sun will come, but the rain will come again. We must learn to love the moments that we are in, to appreciate what we have in our lives right now.
Today I want to share a bit of sunshine that I had the privilege of witnessing. I currently live in Rexburg, where it likes to be cold and snow during this time of year. This morning I woke up to a considerable amount of snow covering everything. It is indeed beautiful but my main concern was what shoes to wear that would prevent me from slipping as a walked to class. Today I was lucky and escaped any unplanned ice skating experiences. As I was walking back to my apartment from my classes and being grateful that the sidewalks weren't that bad, I heard the sound of a car's wheels spinning on the packed snow of the parking lot I was passing by. Unfortunately for this poor girl, she had stopped her car on a slight incline and now could not get traction to keep driving. I looked at myself and said...well I am in a skirt and nice coat..I suppose I could go help (but let's be honest here...I wouldn't have been much help). Then a guy walking in front of me ran over to push, he looked dressed up so he was probably going to ruin his dress shoes but he didn't even stop to think about it. He just saw someone who needed his help. The car was still not able to get going. Another guy in front of me ran over to help, then another and another. So there were about 4 guys pushing on this car now. I started walking more slowly to observe what was happening. Then another guy ran over to help just as a guy in a truck, a few cars behind the stuck car got out of his vehicle to go help. Right before these last two guys got there, the other guys had pushed the car off the packed ice and the girl was on her way.
Maybe to other people this wasn't a big deal, but I was moved by this act of kindness from these men. Each could have passed by saying someone else will help, but instead they chose to be a ray of sunshine for this girl that was stuck. As I continued pondering on this I was thinking about how often we pass by people that could use the sunshine we have. Maybe we have a rain cloud hovering over us so we fail to look up and see the cluster of rain clouds over other people. I know that I am so often guilty of this. In those situations we still have sunshine to give, even if their rain cloud is the same size or smaller than ours. I think that an interesting thing happens as we share a ray of sunshine with someone, it not only shines on them but because we are there it shines on us. How beautiful it is that as we lift those who's shoulders hang low, we cannot help but be lifted ourselves.
My challenge today is for us to look outside of ourselves and see those that are needing their shoulders lifted. Look for those that are stuck in the snow or sitting under a rain cloud. Bring them the sunshine they need, or just sit under their rain cloud with them.
