06/16/25
Imagine you walk outside and it’s a torrential downpour.
There’s a young girl, maybe around 8-years-old, standing outside by herself.
She’s getting drenched as the rain is pouring down from the sky.
You look around and you don’t see anyone else.
No parents.
No adults.
Just this young girl getting soaked.
As you approach her, she raises her arms to the sky and screams…
“Stop raining!
I want the sun to come out!
I need it to stop raining right now!!!”
What would you do in this scenario?
Perhaps you could ask her where her parents are…
Invite her inside…
Offer her an umbrella.
Let’s say she refuses your offers and continues to scream at the rain.
What would you say to her?
I assume you’d tell her that the rain will stop eventually.
You’d explain that she can’t control the rain, and she needs to be accepting of the fact that it’s raining.
You’d tell her that while she can accept that it’s raining, she doesn’t need to stand out here and get soaked; she can still do something about it to keep herself dry.
Maybe you’d share how the rain is necessary for our environment, so it’s not all bad when it rains.
You could also help her realize that if it weren’t for the rain, she maybe wouldn’t appreciate sunny days as much as she does.
All of this is great advice, and it’s advice we so often forget to consider in our daily lives.
Here’s what I mean…
We are that little girl screaming at the rain more often than we’d like to admit.
Something happens that’s outside of our control…
A challenge…
An unexpected difficulty…
An unpleasant adversity…
And we argue with it.
We say it shouldn’t be happening.
We resist it.
It’s raining…
And we haven’t accepted the fact that it’s raining.
We’re looking up at the sky and we’re screaming at the rain.
So what is required is to first accept the fact that it’s raining.
When adversity strikes…
Accept it.
It already happened.
Acceptance does NOT mean resignation.
Just like how the little girl can do something to stay dry…
You can take some action to improve the external circumstances.
But it must begin by accepting your reality.
Through unconditional acceptance of what’s happening…
Even accepting the unforeseen circumstances that were out of your control that you dislike…
You are capable of responding with clarity and wisdom.
Rooting for you,
Jay (encouraging you to accept whatever happens)
