Winter Is Coming!

Hello Sunshine!

I live on the East Coast and the winter season has descended upon us. We’ve had tumultuous rain and flooding, high winds, ice, snow, and freezing temps. Let me put this out there. I’m an autumn weather kind of girl. I love rainy days, especially if I can stay inside with leggings and a t-shirt while binge watching a K-drama. Boots and cardigans are wardrobe staples for me.

Autumns, Winters, and Springs on the East Coast aren’t exactly predictable. That’s what I enjoy about them. A sunny 60° day on Tuesday does not always mean your Friday skies will be just as clear. Surprises aren’t uncommon. You don’t know which accessories to flaunt. Flip-flops, galoshes, or snow boots.

It’s no surprise that some people aren’t fans of the winter months. The lack of sunshine and the unpredictable forecast are an apt description of the unpleasant parts of life. To be transparent, it was during a gloomy period of my life that I resolved to snag one drop of sunshine out of each day. One thing I won’t do is attempt to make it seem like that was an easy job. I did mention that times were gloomy, right? It’s hard to see the sun when your skies are gray. That’s an honest perspective about spiritual life as well. You have to work and fight harder when it seems dark. Point being, you have to keep fighting. Something that helped me was thinking of it a bit like the water cycle.

One promise that I hold onto is the promise that God is listening and he wants to hear from me. So even in the hardest moments, I pray. My prayers, my cries, my tears, are all ways that I communicate with God. That’s the evaporation part. Next would be condensation. Just like in nature, there is a period of stillness. At least, that’s how it appears to the naked eye. This is actually something that’s hard for people to cope with. In life, it seems like our days are either sunny or gloomy. But the in between, when our skies are overcast, is pretty rough too. That’s because we tend not to want to dabble in the unknown. The uncertain stuff is daunting. It might work in my favor, but it also might not. 

The part that always fascinates me about precipitation is that release. All those droplets have been stored and now is the time for it to come down. Something else that blessed me is recognizing the movement. I mentioned stillness and how, to my eyes, it looks like nothing is happening. Sometimes, that is exactly how it looks when we look up at a cloudy sky. Those clouds are going nowhere fast and all they seem to be doing is blocking my view of the sun, right? Yet, they are so necessary! When it’s time for precipitation (release), those clouds aren’t always in the same position that they were in during the earlier steps of the process. There was a shift. A necessary one. And I may have missed it if I was focusing on it as a problem.

This morning, the weather app on my phone gave me a notification that said to expect Abundant Sunshine today! I feel like that message was just for me and perfectly timed with this post. One thing I can be sure of is that seasons change. Every single one is important. No matter the season, make it a personal mission to find your droplet of sunshine. Most importantly, don’t neglect to spend time communicating with God, even if it’s tears. If there is nothing to “evaporate”, then the entire process falters. It’s like farming. If seeds aren’t planted, then there is nothing to be harvested. If your day seems a little overcast, then I pray that you find a drop of sunshine in these words. 

Stay Sunny!