Photo by Elena Perova - Getty Images
Woman Smiling in Rain
A woman in a yellow raincoat enjoys a rainstorm in the woods.
“I hate this weather,” Ken shouted over the howling wind, straining to free his windshield of ice. Colleagues, we were in a parking lot struggling to make our vehicles safe to drive.
I paused from my own scraping to gaze skyward into the vortex of swirling snow, feeling its wind-driven sting on my face. It was a cold, blustery, wild evening that provided an impressive display of nature’s capacity for atmospheric mayhem.
“Don’t you wish you lived somewhere warm?” he hollered.
“No,” I bellowed. “This makes me feel alive. I’m up for it.”
Ken halted his labor long enough to send me a “Are you crazy?” look. Well deserved, no doubt, but it’s a kind of craziness that fits me.
Rough Weather?
By analogy, adverse weather offers us lessons on how to handle some of life’s tough challenges. Both the natural and human worlds can confront us with frustration, disappointment, discomfort, loss and fear, but nature’s approach is particularly instructive. How so? First by fostering greater self-awareness.
If you’ve ever been buffeted by a menacing storm, wildfire, earthquake, tornado or blizzard, among other trepidations, then you’ve witnessed how you react when confronted with danger. What’s more, when inclement weather has disrupted your well-laid plans, you’ve learned how you respond when faced with disappointment. And when you are standing in a parking lot trying to free your ice-encased vehicle while beset by a snowy maelstrom, and during similar scenarios, you discover how you handle adversity.
Consequently, one’s interactions with the natural realm serve as a kind of experiential classroom, offering opportunities not only to better understand oneself, but also to enhance one’s resilience and adaptability.
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Mother Nature’s Lessons
Clearly, there are folks who, by virtue of physical or cognitive challenges, or having lost everything to a natural disaster, have every right to disparage weather that makes their lives even more difficult. But for most of us, tribulations wrought by Mother Nature are also potential learning experiences.
These challenges can prepare us to meet other taxing situations in our lives—interpersonal strife, loss, victimization, fear, injustice and so on. We can learn these lessons from human relationships too, but, in nature, the math is simpler. Unlike a malicious, disordered or devious person, nature means us no harm. It is not for us, and it is not against us. It is an impartial teacher without a hidden agenda.
While some are put off by the natural world’s indifference toward humanity, I am not. In my view, it presents a level playing field, unlike those we too often encounter in the world of people.
I’ve learned that even when I seem incapable of adopting an “I’ll learn from this” attitude in my dealings with persons and human systems, I still can in my interactions with nature. I may lose it around some Homo sapiens who pushes my emotional hot buttons, but I don’t experience a similar failing when the natural environment tests my mettle. Humans may teach us how to be with them, but nature teaches us to be with ourselves.
Snow, howling wind, battering rain, cold, heat, fog . . . bring them all on. Because when we feel unable to meet and learn from the challenges that humanity presents, nature still offers us ways to enhance our resilience and resolve.
It is a wise, if not always gentle teacher.
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