Greener Pastures

When I went home to Rochester at the beginning of this month, I kept looking around in awe of how GREEN everything was. North Carolina, in contrast was quite a bit warmer but most definitely brown and dry. I sat in my parent’s kitchen on a Friday morning doing work, basking in the lush open green field behind their house, wishing that some of that green-ness would somehow transport itself down to my backyard.

Fast forward to 3 weeks later. It’s been raining, for a solid 3 weeks. Out of my mouth, I continue to hear complaints about not being able to go running, not being able to wear flat shoes (pant hems in puddles, ick), how all the good parking spaces are taken and how it’s raining, raining, raining. Today, as I drove to the research center to teach classes my eyes were opened for the first time to how GREEN the entire campus was. “Ahem”, something within said to me. “Wasn’t this, pray tell, the result you were hoping for? Did you forget what it would take to create this?”

Funny how when we set our eyes on the prize, we often forget about the process of creation. We want the green grass, without the rainy days. I see this every day in the work I do, and in my own experience. We set out on the journey to fit in our skinny jeans, escape diabetes, to like what we see in the mirror, to wow someone at the reunion…. but when “in the trenches” we are quick to scurry back to safety. “It’s hard!” “I didn’t know it would be like this!”

Weight loss, I don’t believe is the hardest thing in the world, just as I very consciously recognize that rain is not the worst kind of weather we can have. I can still have a good day even when I can’t wear my flats or go for a run! All too often though, I find our radar detectors are set to find the negatives. We want the weight loss, but we take stock of everything we have to change, give up or do different.

All morning long, I’ve made it a point to bid people good-bye saying “Enjoy the green-ness today!” I’ve gotten plenty of funny looks, and not just for the fact that green-ness is a made up word. But a few people have stopped in their tracks and pointed out how pretty it is, or how much we needed this rain. It’s natural to slip into commiseration over this weather, as it is to join the ranks of those who bemoan the process of weight loss.

Choose, as consciously as you can, to set your radar to notice the good. Focus on the end result and be daring: celebrate the process it takes to arrive there, no matter how many rainy days there are.

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