I've always loved Dolly Parton, but she really got to me the other day. I was watching a Netflix movie called Dumplin and heard someone quote her: "If you want the rainbow, you've got to put up with the rain". That's deep, Dolly! In and of itself, that is just good advice. But this particular day it proved to be more than just that. I was texting a friend who had been having a tough time and ended up sending her that quote in hopes that its whimsy and charm would help her to see the bright side of a situation.
After having moved on from that and started back down my own usual spiral into negativity - where I am in life... things I haven't accomplished... things I haven't become... things I don't have... unfinished projects... unSTARTed projects... yadda yadda adulting is hard woe is me..., my husband gets home and asks me if I would like to go on a walk. Thinking that some fresh air and getting out of the house would be good for my mood, I jump at the chance and off we go. Skies were grey but it felt nice and the sun was trying to peek through.. didn't seem ominous in any way. About halfway through our walk (so probably the furthest from home we could possibly be on this particular route) the bottom of the sky falls out and buckets start to pour. We were completely drenched in seconds. My contacts were lost in my eyes and we had to spit rain water out just to speak because it was pelting so hard on our faces. It truly was one of those "all you can do is just laugh" kinds of moments. We were completely helpless and did not have many options. This was torrential downpour rain... like, flash flood-type rain. We couldn't run for fear that we would slip and fall (and thus succumb to the tides and be swept into the sewers to live among the Killer Clowns and Ninja Turtles) or that we would break an ankle if we came across a deceptive deeper-than-it-actually-looks puddle in our path. So we walked. We walked a half mile in cats-and-dogs raining to get home. Cars would pass us and we just imagined them laughing, as we would be, seeing two idiots who didn't check the weather app before going out on a stroll. Yes, laugh, this is what giving up looks like. We surrendered to the storm and just powered through.
When we finally made it home, there was a little rainbow in our front yard! We poured our shoes out and left them on the porch, and continued dripping inside and further ruining our already horrible laminate floors. Brandon headed straight for the shower and I wiped up all of the wet footprints I could only to notice that it had stopped raining. Figures...
We laughed about that little adventure for a bit and got into dry clothes, had a warm meal and snuggled under blankets with our animals. As I was reflecting on that quote I heard that morning and passed along.. I realized that we had just literally lived it out in real time and it warmed my heart. We weathered the rain with a decent attitude and then saw a rainbow afterwards.. in our happy, safe place - our home. It made me rethink a lot of the negativity I had been stewing in and remember that sometimes things aren't great. And that is okay. But if you keep walking through it you'll come out with a different outlook.. and maybe see a rainbow!
Later that night, we heard a big clap of thunder and another storm suddenly started raining down. Brandon looked over at me and said.. "hey.. you wanna go for a walk..? "
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