How's the Weather?

 I follow a couple of therapy dogs online, and today's post made me think.

"What's the weather like inside you?" was the topic.

We hear a lot about the weather -- extreme heat, floods, drought, tornadoes -- but there isn't anything we can do about it. And as climate change continues to worsen, the weather will become even more extreme. We humans, who think we are all-powerful, are unable to do no more with the weather than warn of upcoming weather threats.

But the weather inside us? That's something we can control. We have the power to minimize or remove angry storm clouds. We can minimize the amount of rain (tears) that falls. We can control how we react to the weather inside us. We have a choice: we can either give in to the turbulent, stormy weather, or we can push it away in favor of calmer, more placid weather.

Unlike our world's bad weather, which will eventually go away and turn into something else (sunshine after a rainstorm, for example), our internal weather likes to hold on for a very long time -- unless we do something to send it away.

This is something I, like most people, have struggled with. Remaining very angry at someone who hurt me badly didn't hurt him. But the storm inside did hurt me, until I let it go.

So let's work on looking forward to a brighter, sunnier forecast, regardless of the weather Mother Nature throws at us.