The weather patterns of life...

A good friend of mine brought something interesting to my attention this past Shabbat.  She mentioned that she saw my last blog post with the poem, and she couldn't think of what to write as a comment.  "It just seemed very emotional and sad," she said.  Then she recalled something from a few months ago (back in the spring).  At that time, she had been going through a difficult time with one of her children and people commented that her blogs were always very gloomy.  Someone even made the comment to her that in contrast to my blogs, which were full of happiness and cheer at the time, hers were that much more depressing...

Now, her life is filled with exciting new things - youngest child entering school, new job, etc. and my life is a little more emotional than it was 6 months ago.  Even though we live in the same city, it seems as though our lives have different seasonal weather patterns.  This analogy seems especially pertinent living in a place like Seattle where the periods of sunshine and rain are so pronounced throughout the year.  For nearly three months, we wake up to sunshine every day.  The days are long and the sun shines persistently.  If a raindrop falls from the sky during this period, it seems out of place, and we know it will soon end.  Then the winter comes.  Every day is gray and rainy.  We don't expect any different.  We accept the gray and rain and know that it will have an end in its own time.  However, if a sunny day does happen to pop in and permeate the clouds, those rays of brightness mean so much.

So it is with our lives.  Each person has their seasons of sunshine and clouds.  Thankfully, we don't go through the same weather patterns at the same times.  As friends, we all balance each other and know that each weather pattern will soon pass, leaving something new in its wake.