Snow Storms and Other Stuff

The past week I have been fortunate enough to have taken some time off from work to paint, meditate, listen to my Angels, and just enjoy being alive. My husband and I had intended to go away for the weekend for our anniversary but Mother Nature had other plans for us. I have noticed a big change in myself from the me of a couple of years ago. A couple of years ago I would have gotten all upset that our plans were ruined, stressed about the snow, complained about living in a state that occasionally has big snow storms, whined about the cold and the snow, and generally would have made myself miserable over the whole event. This year I was content to stay home, go outside and occasionally shovel some snow, and even found shoveling snow enjoyable!! My husband noticed the change and remarked more than once that I was supposed to be the one who hates cold, winter and snow. And I really can't explain the change, except that I am learning to be content no matter if my original plans had to be changed or not. I am finding myself going with the flow more often.

Now I am not claiming to have attained enlightenment by any means. Just earlier in the week I worked myself into a frenzy over some silly little nothings and it took me most of the next day to get back to my peaceful place. But I have learned something about myself. When I find myself upset, trying to talk myself out of it does not work. Learning to flow with the upset feelings is just as important as flowing with the feelings of peace and contentment. All of these feelings are what makes life an adventure. What if life was just one day after another of sunshine and warm days? What if we never faced any challenges? What if there was never any snow to shovel? Life would probably get a little boring. I have read that one of the reasons we choose to incarnate into life on earth in the first place is because on the other side, life is all light and love and peace. There are no challenges, there are no snowstorms, no earthquakes, no unloving people at all. Maybe we choose to incarnate into life on earth because of the challenges, the contrast, so we can appreciate the good things in life. A person who exercises knows that our bodies get used to any particular kind of exercise and after awhile we stop seeing results. It is beneficial to our bodies to continually change our workouts so our bodies continue to be challenged. It is the same with our souls. We need contrast, we need challenges so that our souls become stronger. When we overcome in a challenging situation the next time we face a similar situation we know how to deal with it.

One thing I know. There are things I can change and things I cannot. The things I can change are the things that happen within me: my thoughts, my attitudes, my reactions to events. The events themselves most of the time I have no control over. I can't control the weather, I can't control the actions of other people, but I can control how I react to the weather, how I react to the actions of others. Once I find my peaceful place, then the things I can't control cease to cause me to lose my peace.