Calamities of Life

 

Rain, Rain, and more Rain.

The cold persists and lingers in this high-altitude climate, and so does the rain. It’s June. Someone, please tell the weather gods that. The melting of mountain snowfall helps supply water to rivers in the spring. That run-off contributes to filling the reservoirs with water needed to sustain life in this arid high desert area. Not to mention the need of many to water their lawns and mitigate fire hazards on overly dry grasses.

Yep, that’s the way of things so far this year. 

Spring rains are welcomed, but so much of it can hamper the best picnic plans, end-of-school outings, and vacations. Sigh. The torrential downpours we’ve had lately are usually seen late in the season when the monsoon rains come. We expect that, but this early in the season? What a bummer.

“When it rains, it pours,” as the saying goes. That not only applies to our heavenly skies but to life as well. The metaphor of rain can have an ominous connotation of use, such as the unfortunate hardships that can happen when we least expect it. However, this post focuses on mishaps or acts of fate occurring out of nowhere, giving us cause for pause, if not comedy. Just the other day, if one thing didn’t go well, dang if the other didn’t. 

For example: Low on gas and heading to get a refill, the front tire goes flat. Standing in the roadway, waiting for a tow, the rain comes. Not a gentle mist or a sprinkle of drops, but a deluge of such force I couldn’t hear myself think! Yes, the wind was involved as well. The howls in the newly leaved trees overhead were another concern. Heaven forbid a limb fall on the roof of the car.

Of course, at that point, I wouldn’t have been surprised if it did.  

Another example: Grocery stores now charge ten cents for using plastic bags. Okay, I want to protect the environment and reduce non-biodegradable plastic as much as possible. So, I did my part and purchased the hard-sided cardboard grocery carriers, which look so trendy. At the grocery store, buying more food than I intended, it was difficult to get those cute little wonders to fit inside the cart’s basket without stacking them on top of each other. As I muscled the cart to my car in a hurry to unload the contents before the rain fell, an unseen rock, stone, or whatever halted the cart’s forward movement, but not the carrier with groceries stacked on top. Yep, you guessed it. The contents spilled onto the pavement. Eggs cracked and oozed onto the spilled toilet paper; the milk carton broke, and its contents joined the eggs. At the same time, I scrambled to chase after grapefruit that had rolled away under other cars. Then the rain came. AGAIN, not a gentle mist or a sprinkle of drops, but a deluge of such force I couldn’t hear myself think! The wind was involved too, and why not? The wind also brought its friends, thunder, and lightning. YES! To say I and my cute, trendy grocery carriers were not soaked is an understatement. All I could do was run to my car, wide-eyed, and wonder why in heaven I was being punished this way.

WHY!?

Why, indeed, does calamity befall us or come in groups of three? I have another example that happened in the same week, but I won’t bore you with those details. I’ve shared enough already, but let’s just say it involved a toothbrush that resulted in a cracked tooth. 

You get the idea.

Life is full of little incidents that have us wondering if there’s a conspiracy to ruin our daily lives on a constant basis. Rain is a perfect metaphor for the “oops” occurring one after the other as we live our lives. We curse out loud over these travails and consider if the universe has pin-pointed just us to make the worst happen at that particular moment in time. But it also serves as a teacher that tells us that life is not perfect. We learn to cope with inconveniences the rain might bring. I don’t believe God is doing this on purpose. I’d like to think He’s prompting us to laugh at ourselves, especially when only the ego is bruised in the process. Besides, the ridiculousness of it all is sometimes laughable. 

However, there is a silver lining—a shining rainbow at the end of the deluge.  

We welcome the results the chaos of “rain” can bring, especially when it all comes together in the end. The clouds move out, the sun shines, the air is cleared of pollutants, and the atmosphere is cleaner. Flowers recover and continue to bloom, and trees remain strong with leaves that reach up and out to the glorious sunshine. So too, are the results of the calamities we encounter in our day to day. Life resumes and carries on as before, with us a little wiser, better prepared, and mindful of the “oops” that will more than likely befall us again.

The flat tire was repaired, and my car now runs like a champ; groceries were repurchased with a refund by an obliging clerk; my tooth looks lovely after a quick repair by my fabulous dentist.

So if you’re walking in from the parking lot of your office building and the high heel on your shoe breaks, causing the contents of your briefcase to spill, then the wind blows the papers around for you to chase when you’re already ten minutes late for an important meeting (yeah, that happened), just remember that the proverbial rain will fall—no doubt.

The laughter the oops can bring, despite the rain, is needed, after all. As much as we complain about the inconvenience, I like to think that in the end, we are probably better off for it than without it.

~DaMarie

Photo courtesy of Patrick Kovar