It doesn’t rain very often in Charlotte. Even with a
particularly wet summer, Charlotte still cannot be called a rainy city. The
weather here is usually near perfect in my book. It’s cool and sunny in the
Spring. It’s cool and sunny in the Fall. It’s chilly in the winter but not
frigid and it hardly rains or snows at all. Summer is humid and hot like a
tropical forest. I love the weather in this city.
Due to this beautiful weather, I have a problem. When it is
so perfectly, wonderful outside, I want to be outside. While I am in my office
working, I want to be outside. When I am cooking dinner, I want to be outside.
When I do anything, I feel this strong and usually guilty compulsion to be
outside. Being outside, often turns into doing things. Going for walks, hanging
out with friends, eating out on a roof top or patio, going Uptown, anything to
take advantage of a beautiful day.
However, when it rains, I am free! Rainy days in Charlotte
don’t often happen too many times in a row so they usually offer just the right
balance for my extroverted self. Every now and then, just about as often as we
get a rainy day, I need a day to just relax and be alone.
When I see clouds rolling in, I feel a sense of peace wash
over me, as the pressure of go outside-hangout with people-do something drips
away with each drop that plummets to the steamy sidewalk.
Today was a rainy day. Today, I slept late. I took a long
shower. I read out of multiple books in bed. I cooked dinner. I ate alone on my
porch and watched the flitting of the birds as they escaped the raindrops. I
noticed the veins in the dogwood leaves outside my door. I admired the
succulent that was blooming on my porch and how the light caught in its thick
leaves. I wrote several blog posts. I leisurely and quietly rested in my
apartment feeling absolutely no pressure to go anywhere, do anything, or even
leave this marvelous space.
Sometimes, we all just need a rainy day. This rainy day is
actually a Sabbath day. I rush and cram and fill my days so jammed packed that
I don’t ever really allow myself a Sabbath. Even if I planned to do nothing and
see that sun a shinning, then I will find myself fighting the urge to meet up
with someone or go somewhere. I don’t yet know how to give myself permission to
refuel when it is nice out. This is something I will continue to try to
cultivate because Sabbath keeping is some of the best preventative medicine out
there. Medicine for your body, mind and spirit.
Do you allow yourself to Sabbath or do you just wait for a
rainy day?
