We get so caught up in where we are, especially if we label it a bad place, that we forget that where we are won’t last forever. If you just hang in there, things will change. Look at the pictures below.
A view of the American River in July of 2012 from a bluff.
A view of the American River in winter of 2012 just before sunrise from a bluff.
Some of you live in a world where the cold of winter is oppressive. Even the mild winters we get here in Sacramento might get you down. You might get slightly depressed and long for the heat of the sun on your face and dream of being warm all the way down to your bones.
If it’s winter, you can wait, knowing that the heat of summer will arrive.
Some of you live in a world where the heat of summer melts your brain. The hundred degree days, the UV cooking your skin and your car like an oven until the air conditioning kicks in, could just beat you down.
If it’s summer, you can wait, knowing the slower pace of a resting winter world is on its way.
Sometimes we get so stuck in the pain of the here and now, we forget that things will change. And, sometimes, we forget that we can change our routine a little and get some of that feeling we want right now. Suppose you love the cold winter light and world while it rests and rebuilds in winter like I do. You could get up very early on a summer day, while it is still cool, and run in minimal clothing, feeling goose bumps on your skin. It won’t be the same as the chill of winter. It will be a change from the noon day sun.
Suppose you love the heat of summer and the warmth of the summer sun on your face?You could find that place in your home where the sun shines through a window and sit in a comfortable chair and close your eyes and feel the warmth on the your face and imagine summer.
Or, you could simply change your attitude. Embrace the seasons of the world and your life. You could understand that sometimes you are in winter, where you don’t get much growth and you need to rebuild and rest. Rest is doing something. It’s resting. All living things need rest.
Or, if that heat of summer is too much, rearrange your day like much of the world. Get up super early and work and play and nap in the middle of the day and then work more when it is cooler. Don’t say you can’t. Of course you can’t every day, all day, but you certainly could on the days you control. Or bet yet, revel in the heat, enjoy your mastery over it with air conditioning and shade.
Wherever you are, remember that it won’t last. And, remember one other thing. Please don’t live your days in “if only” land. If only it was summer, if only it was winter, if only I was taller, thinner, richer, prettier, smarter. If only something else. If only my aunt had wheels she be a tea cart.
Change your approach and change your attitude and it really doesn’t matter what happens to you. If you want to “if only” and feel better about your fate, ask yourself other questions. If only I was born in Somalia, I would probably have died in infancy. If only I lived in the middle ages that disagreement I had about religion would have resulted in my death.
Even those of us that are having a very tough time today, now, can usually hunker down and do something about it. And, we are so much better off even on the worst of our days than 90% of the world, why in the heck are we complaining?