Puddles or No Puddles

It was a stormy night when I was in my studio creating. I read this quote and ‘saw’ exactly how I wanted to portray the mud. Brown, murky, messy and out of control. It’s true, rain brings such life and with that comes such mess. We must be willing to handle both sides – the good and the frustrating- in order to progress and prosper in life.

I was driving on the highway and traffic came to a screeching halt. Blue lights, rain, and chaos prevailed over anything any of us wanted to get to in a hurry. I could almost hear the frustration and anger throughout the lines of traffic. Then I looked a bit farther away and there was a farmer’s field growing strong, made even stronger by each drop of precipitation it received from above. I was experiencing the mud when it hit me that the farmer probably prayed for rain.

Life s about the ying and yang of it all. It is about being able to experience and empathize with how the good and the bad, the easy and hard, or the smooth and the tough impact everyone around us. No one’s life is all good or all bad; it is a jumbled up mix of both and the choice is how we are going to handle that combination as it hits our life each day. Being able to remain our true self while the chaos and excitement flows all around us is a real benchmark for realizing we have the right perspective.

Life will ebb and flow at the best and worst times without asking for our permission. It will flood weddings and ruin funerals, bring us a bonanza of prosperity and take it back in an instant. Life will lift us high then push us into that wet, dirty, soggy mud puddle just because it can. The key is taking both sides in stride AND coming back to who we are and what it is we want to do. Puddles or no puddles, those who can navigate them both will find themselves on the other side in a better place and ready to move on.