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Whatever the Weather |
| Posted on Jun 06 2009 |
Whatever the Weather
"There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothes".
I love that line by Billy Connelly, and how true.
Is it just me, or does everyone seem to have become obsessed by the weather this summer? Every shop I go into, every time I bump into a friend on the high street, or I speak to my family on the other side of the country. I can’t get away from it, it’s brought up in every conversation, and quite frankly, it’s all getting a bit predictable. Unlike the weather.
And that’s my whole point. You can’t predict the weather, it’s all guesswork. Yet every day millions of us log onto out favourite weather channel and check out the forecast, as if it’s the gospel. I don’t mean to be derogatory about those at the weather station, or anyone else for that matter, but how many times do they actually get it right?
Is it just by chance that our nation’s favourite pastime is trying to predict the unpredictable, to control the uncontrollable and to grumble about it whatever happens? It’s always raining, it’s too hot, it’s a bit "muggy", it doesn’t know what it’s doing. Well of course it doesn’t, it’s the weather.
Could it be that this is the approach that many of us take to life, only to be disappointed when it doesn’t meet with our expectations?
We build a picture of what our ideal life should look like, we set goals for ourselves, and for others, we try to work out what’s round the corner, when really this is a completely futile exercise, setting us up for disappointment even.
We’re so full of hopes and dreams that may or may not be right for us, yet we’re let down just because they didn’t turn out as we expected them to. What would happen if we lost all our expectations, and just let things happen. I can honestly say I have experienced some of the best moments of peace in the last 6 months, when I stopped "hoping" and started "wondering" about things. Approaching life with a sense of excitement rather than expectation.
"I wonder what the future will bring" is a lot less anxiety-inducing than "I hope that I will be ok in the future". I wish I’d learned that earlier in life, but I guess I was too busy reading my horoscopes, fortune cookies, the back of cereal packets for "signs" - anything that would give me more control over my life.
Really the greatest sense of control we can hope for is being prepared or at least ready to accept everything that life throws at us, like having the right clothes whatever the weather.
Last changed: Jun 06 2009 at 4:43 PM
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