WE ARE RIGHT…
WE ARE ALWAYS RIGHT!

It’s been raining for two whole days now. The sky is filled with dark clouds and the wind is blowing like crazy in all directions. God I love the rainy season!  All in nature is so much greener and we constantly have the privilege of being entertained by the wind’s songs, the dancing of the leaves.  Here in Mwanza, the dust doesn’t invade us anymore.  It is almost as if the entire city is vigourously being cleansed.  For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved rainy/windy days. Have you ever noticed how everyone seems to slow down a notch on those days?  People drive slower and seem more tolerant; we open doors more easily for people, helping them in and we’re even more understanding if people are late and /or even cancel appointments. Have you ever noticed how our “to do” list also diminishes quite a bit?   It is as if the things that seemed to be urgent can all of a sudden wait until tomorrow. I always observed how people take the time to live more on rainy days (this also applies for stormy winter days). We stay in bed a bit longer, some people stay in bed all day!  We often stretch our lunch hour and we shorten our working day. There’s more family time together, most probably because everyone’s inside.

For me, rainy days seem to give me the permission to slow down the pace  and relax a little without having that constant nagging feeling of having to be more & more productive.  I personally even find it easier to breathe on rainy days which makes jogging so much more enjoyable.

Now, that’s one way of looking at rainy days.  But I don’t know, maybe you’re one of those people who see rainy days differently? I’ve also heard different versions on the matter, such as the fact that there are more road accidents during rainy days, statistically the productivity of employees declines, most women don’t feel pretty on rainy days because of what it does to their hair, people are impatient and they’re all racing for the closest parking space, more cold medicine is bought following rainy days, school absenteeism increases etc. etc.

I don’t know about you, but I definitely prefer the first version.  That’s what’s so fascinating about life.  Each one of us can look at things differently any which way we chose to.  We can focus our thoughts on whatever we want.  We can like or dislike rain, we can choose to focus on our partner’s weaknesses or on his strengths, we can criticize a situation or we can praise it, we can love or we can hate snow. And the most important part is that whatever we think, we’ll always be right about it!   And, there is another side on every coin.  Because we’re right, we’ll always get more of that which we are focusing on.  Whatever and however we think, we’re always right, we’re always absolutely right!

So here is an invitation to myself and all of you to take up the challenge of observing just for this coming week, the kind of thoughts invade our minds and what exactly we have a tendency of focusing on?  We might be surprised at what is automatically going on in our head. Maybe if we take the time to really observe how we actually think, we just might discover why these things we don’t want keep popping up in our lives, keep showing up again and again.  We just might decide to alter our thoughts and focus on something different.  Because after all, we’re right, in whatever and however we choose to think… so why not choose thoughts that help us get where we aspire to be, and get what we really desire, rather than where we are afraid of being or going?
Wishing you all the first version RAINY week!

Manon Fleury