Waiting for the Rain

I planned a weekend trip to a nearby lake. Then, the weather forecast said it would rain. On the day of, the skies were cloudy, but the rain was a long time coming.

Instead of grabbing my bag and going, I waited. I knew it would come, just not when. An hour went by, then three, then five. In the afternoon, the sun even poked its head through the clouds. Preposterous!

But eventually, at 9 PM or so, the skies opened, and torrential rain poured down. Finally! It kept raining for the rest of the weekend. My trip would have to happen another day.

Sometimes, all you can do is wait for the rain. Maybe the rain is an email. Or a rejection letter. Or news from the doc. Whatever shape your weather blockade takes, it doesn’t mean your delay is dead time. You can still fill those hours. Carpe diem — seize the day!

I read while I waited. Rested. Called my mom. Had a schnitzel. Bought some bread. Even went outside. It wasn’t the trip I had planned, but maybe it was the trip that I needed. Forced breaks are an opportunity to reflect on your pacing. Are you going too fast? Too slow? How can you make the wait time well spent?

We can’t always avoid the rain, but even when the downpour is inevitable, we can still choose how we spend our time. Life never “waits” in the sense that it stops altogether — and neither should we.