An unexpected change in schedules, leaving you with nothing
to do for a few hours, can actually be a blessing in disguise. I rediscovered this
from experience yesterday,
Around mid-day yesterday a couple of my schedules ended up
being changed at the last minute. I was left in a very busy city, with a whole
afternoon at my disposal, with not much money on me and without anything to do.
I could have gone back to where I was staying. But the catch was I was needed
by early evening to be at another meeting downtown. I realized I had nothing to
do for five hours!
For the first few minutes I was clueless. Then it began to
rain. First a small drizzle. And then a steady downpour. I stepped out of my
car on impulse and started to walk in the rain. Up ahead in front of me the sea
was choppy and dark clouds gathered menacingly. There was something beautiful I
thought about this moment even though my real world was in the throes of a
grave crisis. I kept walking, unmindful (which is very unlike me!) that my
shoes were soiled and my clothes drenched. I am not a typical rain person__as
my wife and children will tell you!. But there was something uplifting about
the entire experience. I started to be enjoy it!
I was soon reminded of Johnnie Ray’s 1956 rendition of
Johnny Bragg and Robert Riley’s classic ‘Just Walkin’ in the Rain….!’. I didn’t
recall the lyrics instantaneously but the song’s mood swept me away. In about
20 minutes, I was lost to the rain, the ocean, the clouds and the horizon. The
wind blowing into my face made the raindrops feel cold and sharp. In that time
I had no feeling or sense of anything I was dealing with. All morning I had been
battling a crisis and was due to deal with it again later in the evening and
all through next week. But my rain experience, born out of a fortuitous change
in schedules, reconnected me to my inner self. As I walked in the rain, I
actually seemed to have dropped anchor and found my beautiful, undisturbed,
inner core in the process!
That rain experience was a reaffirmation for me that it is
perfectly fine to be doing nothing sometimes. And just being. We don’t have to
be rushing through Life all the time. No time is better than now to stop and
smell the roses, pause and stare endlessly into the sky or walk in the rain! Our
daily lives will be full of twists, turns, tragedies, challenges, ups and
downs. We can’t expect everything to be perfect for us to live and experience
Life’s beauty and magic! There’s no better time than now to live. Because
maybe, if we don’t break free from those situations that hold us back and if we
don’t choose to live fully now when we have the time, we may still get an
opportunity to live a Life that we always wanted to, but there simply may not
be enough time! Have a great Saturday….and here’s the link to that memorable
song meanwhile….
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