Speaking of the Weather
It’s the third thing I do every morning after I’ve poured a cup of coffee and checked the weather. Actually, I check the weather while the coffee is perking on the camp stove in the outdoor kitchen. Once it’s ready, I go inside, sit at the table and write the word grateful at the top of a blank page and see what comes through the pen. Sometimes I write things like “my family, the dogs (Lola, Puzzle, & Snow), my home, and my work.” Those are indeed are some of the big things that I am grateful for every day. But there are a million little things too. Some days I write “my headache is gone,” or “I have a guitar lesson today.” Anything goes. Nothing is too big or too small. The things I write down matter to me and that is enough.
Saying please and thank you is something I learned to do at a young age. However, as I’ve gotten older, I have learned there’s much more to being grateful than a simple thank you. Gratitude is a feeling that taps directly into a source of power that has the ability to change everything, even in the worst of circumstances. It sets the stage for a strong beginning. It can also be a total reset, like unplugging the computer and then plugging it back in — boom, problem solved. Gratitude changes my attitude and my outlook. It softens me and turns the ordinary into the extraordinary.
But, back to the weather. I can’t tell you why I feel like I need to check the weather on my phone app every morning. After all, I can tell when I walk outside if it’s warm or cold or raining. And in all honesty, usually, the weather doesn’t follow the instructions of the forecast anyway. It has a mind of its own. However, showing gratitude for the weather is easier said than done. It’s either too hot, too cold, too windy, or too humid. Very seldom is it just right. As I continue to practice giving thanks for all things, I am finding that there are gifts in all kinds of weather if I just take the time to notice.
“Nature we have always with us, an inexhaustible storehouse of that which moves the heart, appeals to the mind, and fires the imagination — health to the body, a stimulus to the intellect, and joy to the soul.” John Burroughs, The Art of Seeing Things
I live off-the-grid, which gives me countless opportunities to show my appreciation for the life-sustaining gifts of nature. For instance, after I come in from taking a shower, I say, “That is the best shower I’ve ever had!” and I mean it. If it happens to be raining when I shower, I take a little longer. But when it’s not, I turn off the shower head while I shampoo my hair and turn it back on to rinse off. The awareness that every drop of water I use has to first fall from the sky makes me appreciate this valuable natural resource. With a sharpie marker, I wrote these words on the framing inside our outdoor shower, “Water provided by Mother Nature, one raindrop at a time. Enjoy, and use it wisely.”
We rely on the rain for every drop of water, including all our drinking and cooking water, which we filter through a tabletop Berkey filter. We collect the rain through gutters mounted on all of our rooflines — if there is water dripping, there’s a container catching it, whether it’s a water tank, a barrel, or a bowl for the dogs. And when it rains, I smile.
When I lived in the mountains of Colorado, I used to get stressed when the wind blew in the winter. Keeping almost two miles of road passable through months of snowy weather was a constant worry, and when the wind blew, it made everything worse. Through that experience, I started to seek out ways in which the wind was good. I noticed the elk leaning with their backs into the wind and ravens playfully catching the wind currents. Without the wind, the weather systems wouldn’t move on, the air would be stale, seeds wouldn’t scatter, and the answers wouldn’t come (thank you, Bob Dylan). My newfound appreciation for wind didn’t stop it from blowing or change the circumstances, but it changed my attitude, and that changed everything.
“Language creates reality. Words have power. Speak always to create joy.” Deepak Chopra
Gratitude has the power to raise the vibration of energy within our own bodies. (If you haven’t checked out the groundbreaking research of Dr. Masaru Emoto on how words and thoughts can change the molecular structure of water crystals, it’s worth a YouTube dive.)
Although my thoughts and words may not change the weather, they can undoubtedly affect my reality. Being grateful for warm sunny days is easy — being grateful for the storms or unrelenting heat and humidity, not so much. But, I’m working on it. Sometimes, it comes down to giving myself a pep talk about how the humidity is good for my aging skin, removing toxins, and smoothing my wrinkles. But it’s much bigger than that. A regular practice of gratitude is a practice of noticing and even more, seeing through the eyes of my heart. What’s the weather forecast for today? Just a sec, I’ll look outside — I’m pretty sure Mother Nature has something special in store.
