Embracing the Storm

It was not supposed to be like this.  I most certainly did not expect disappointment today.  So few are the days I take off work, that I hope to enjoy them when I do.  Yet here I sit, inside my cabaña in Tulum, Mexico, with the door shut and watching the storm roll in.  It pains me to sit within my cabaña instead of my preferred spot outside on my veranda.

On my veranda, I can close my eyes, feel the warm breeze on my face, and consume the salty air with each inhale.  Each deep breath I take seems to restore my soul.  On my veranda, I can watch my lovely, make that hot, wife basking in the sunshine and reading on a beach bed.  On my veranda I can watch our friends Trent and Tracy playing bocce ball with coconuts.  Their game of bocce is made more interesting when a random dog runs in to join the game and adjusts the resting place of the pallino.  On my veranda, I can see the turquoise blue water of the Caribbean and hear the rhythmic crashing of the waves.

But now, inside my cabaña, I can see dark skies and grayish water, all through my rain-dabbled glass door.  This view from my cabaña is not exactly inspiring words to flow from my fingertips.  In fact, as I stare at a white screen, I have a serious case of writer’s block. 

It quickly becomes apparent that I have but a single option, which I present to my wife as she lies on our king size bed reading her Nook.  “So, let me get this straight,” Kacey says, “you want me to put down my book and go for a swim, in the cold wind and wet rain?”

“Absolutely,” I reply, “just trust me.  It will be fun.”  Kacey usually trusts me, occasionally  too much so, but not this time.  Not even the lure of a hot shower after a dip in the sea appeals to her.  When she says, “Remember, I am also on vacation,” I know the discussion is over.

With my favorite companion not joining me in this excursion, I walk two cabañas down, where I find Trent and Tracy sitting huddled in their doorway, peering out at the gloom.

Trent, generally game for any suggestion that I have, quickly jumps up at my proposed plan.  We prance the fifty yards from our cabaña to the edge of the sea.  The cool rain pelts our bodies and keeps our pace swift.

Normally, I edge slowly into the ocean.  As with most members of the male gender, I pause at two critical junctures when entering water..  But today, with the rain pelting down on me, I am less inclined to proceed with a slow immersion and instead quickly dive into the first large wave that I encounter.

For about twenty minutes, Trent and I swim in the ocean, in the rain.  We jump over large waves that have not yet broken and plunge into the white surf of those that have.  For a  few minutes, we roar in laughter while doing our best Karate Kid impersonations of Daniel LaRusso practicing crane kicks against the large waves.

After losing a series of battles with the waves, I notice that the rain has stopped, the wind has calmed considerably, and the sun is peeking out.  Refreshed, I return to my veranda to towel off, and tell Kacey of the fun that she missed.

As I sit on my veranda and reflect back on my decision to swim in the rain, it seems silly.  Not silly that I swam in the rain, but silly that I even considered not doing it.  I had initially hesitated out of fear of getting wet!  Of course, I would get wet even while swimming on a cloudless day, and a storm produces waves much more enjoyable for a swim.

Now back on my veranda, I reflect on one of the most inspirational videos I have ever viewed: Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture.  If you are not one of the nearly fifteen million people who have watched the video on You Tube, or one of the nearly five million people who have read his book of the same title, Randy was a university professor dying of cancer.  Before succumbing to his disease, Randy decided to give one last lecture on achieving your childhood dreams.

If you have never watched the video, I encourage you to set aside 75 minutes to do so.  I believe the video will inspire, motivate, and humble you.  I assign the video as extra credit in many of my college courses. 

My favorite line from Randy’s lecture is as follows: “We can't change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”  Effectively, Randy is encouraging his audience to embrace the storms of life.

The storm I faced today in Tulum is without question incomparable to the storm that Randy faced.  However ,the principles of embracing the storms of life are the same.  Sometimes, when the storm is small, embracing it is simply the decision to swim in the rain.  In Randy’s case, he embraced the storm by inspiring millions and securing the financial future of his young family.

At this point, loyal readers, I must ask you two questions.  First, what storm are you facing right now in your life?  Second, are you sitting there and watching the storm with a feeling of despair, or are you embracing the storm?  What I was reminded of today on the beaches of Tulum is that we can choose how to handle a storm.  We can sit around feeling sorry for ourselves for being in a storm, or we can accept the fact that a storm is upon us, and embrace it. 

Perhaps your storm is that you are unemployed, and you can embrace it by using your extra free time to learn a new skill or improve relationships with others.  Perhaps your storm is that you are facing a serious illness, and you can embrace it by learning as much as you can about that illness, battling and defeating that illness, and then using your knowledge and experience to help others deal with similar illnesses in the future.  Perhaps your storm is similar to one that I periodically face: you reacted poorly during a discussion with others and are now suffering the consequences of a strained relationship.  You can embrace that storm by mending that relationship, learning how to make better decisions in the future, and allowing those you love to learn from your mistakes.

As I reflect back on today’s storm in Tulum, I do have a regret.  Ten minutes before I decided to go for my swim, it was raining much harder, the wind was much stronger, the waves were much larger, and the swim would have been more enjoyable and memorable.  Next time I am in a storm, I vow to get off my butt a bit sooner.