It was raining yesterday morning here in Northeast Georgia. At one point it was coming down very hard, and our dogs – Angel, Dexter and We-Me – did not even want to go out to potty. Soon the storm broke, and it seemed like the rain had passed. Since it wasn’t raining anymore, I decided to take the dogs on a walk.
We took our usual route, which is about 3 miles. Halfway into our walk it begins to rain again. We started walking much more deliberately now. No more lingering and sniffing around. The rain began to come down even harder, and we were still about 1.5 miles from home. Now I was worried… Then the rain started pouring down from the sky! We were drenched!!
My mind began to race! I was overwhelmed with fear and anxiety. “What if the dogs get sick? What if Angel gets pnuemonia because she’s so old? What if Dexter gets sick because he’s got such a short coat? What if little We-Me gets sick because he’s so small?” It’s so easy for me to feel overwhelmed by a situation that is beyond my control.
Then I remembered something that Seth Godin said during an episode of The Beautiful Writers Podcast. He said, “they call it singing in the rain because THE RAIN IS THE POINT. If there was no raining, there would be no singing.”
“Ultimately, when we are afraid, when we peer into the void and wonder if we are ready to leap, Godin asks us to remember the iconic last scene of Singing in the Rain: It’s pouring in Hollywood, but Gene Kelly waves away the waiting taxi cab, closes his umbrella, and begins to tap dance through the streets in his rain-soaked suit. “The rain is the point,” Godin explained. “The uncertainty is the point. The vulnerability is the point.” https://www.nbforum.com/nbreport/seth-godin-get-ideas-spread/ – article by Lisa Siva
I’m so glad that I remembered what Seth Godin said about embracing our fears and dancing with it rather than letting them control us. So I began to sing, and I laughed, and we had the time of our lives! It made all the difference. It was an experience that we shared that we will remember for the rest of our lives. Those are the kinds of memories that frienships are built upon.
By the time we arrived home, I actually was really enjoying the rain! 🙂 I also realized how good I was feeling – not sick at all. I didn’t even feel cold! A thought came to my mind. Had I walked the entire way home full of worry and filled with anxiety, I’m almost certain that I would have come home feeling unwell.
Once we got the dogs inside, I dried them and brushed them with a conditioning spray. They felt so wonderful! Watching them nap afterwards, looking completely content, I realized that the rain really was the point. Without the rain, it would’ve been just another walk – easily forgotten as the days pass. But not this time. We now trust each other that much more through this shared experience.
Don’t avoid the storms of life. “THE RAIN IS THE POINT. If there was no raining, there would be no singing.” Seth Godin
Jun the Groomer 