Some lessons in life require getting all wet

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Sunday night, I sat at my desk beside the window and listened to the rain.

Nice...and it sure beats $80 an hour for a therapist.

I like rain. I like to hear it hitting the windows, to smell the air when it first starts, to feel it...except when I’m having a bad hair day or have just washed the car, which isn’t all that often.

When I was a child I wasn’t all that crazy about too much rain because it made the grass grow and mowing the yard was under my jurisdiction. Simply put, the more rain, the more the grass grew — and the more I had to cut it. Now that I’m trying to feed a few cows I like it because the more it rains, the more the grass grows and the more there is for the cattle to eat.

Funny how things change through the years, isn’t it?

The poets tell us we ought to run barefoot in the rain. That sounds like something that could hurt your feet, depending on where you frolic, as in the gravel driveway. But I think I get the point. We might do better, they’re saying, if we were a bit more spontaneous, wound a bit less tightly. So what if your hair gets wet? Dry it when you come in.

Just don’t run around outside when the lightning is about.

Lately as I’ve become more conscious of my age and the fact I am not immortal — at least on this side of the Great Divide — I’ve wondered why it took this long for me to get this smart. Lest you think that last statement was too much ego, let me explain by saying what I mean is that finally I’ve learned some life lessons, things I think I would like to have known, say, about 47 years ago.

Of course, upon further reflection, I think the reality is I — and all of us — had to go through the learning experiences to gain the insight and wisdom and understanding. But still, I think it would have been nice. The old adage “We get too soon old and too late smart” fits more and more.

So what do we do? We can’t turn back the clock to those thrilling days of yesteryear. And we can’t stop the world and get off. Dropping out is also not really an option. And now that a vicious virus threatens us all, there is a “new normal” to consider.

The answer, it seems to me, is multi-fold. First of all it behooves us to keep on trucking. And secondly, as we truck or run or whatever, to take those insights and bits of wisdom with us. And thirdly, as we go, resolve to do better, to take more risks (but not stupid ones like lying on a railroad track) — to love more deeply, to say one more kind word or do one more good deed.

And last, but certainly not least, to keep on working at it all by running — or at least jogging or even standing — in the rain.

What’s the forecast for the next few days?