Dear Reader:

For anyone lucky enough to be retired or at home yesterday, wasn’t it a most soothing, restful day? What is there about the sound of falling raindrops on the roof that just makes us close our eyes and take cat naps throughout the stormy periods?

I slept in late yesterday, most likely due to the unusual darkness of the morning, and when I woke up…it was during one of the intervals of the sun peeking through the clouds.

With the soil finally soft from the overnight rains…I grabbed my shovel and got one potted lantana and two potted morning glory plants into the ground…just in time before the afternoon showers moved in again.

Victory in perfect timing for the gardener! Sun and rain. Sun and rain. Just like plants, we too, need both bright and dark days in our lives to teach us courage, perseverance, gratitude, thankfulness, and feelings of blessedness. The dark days make us shine brighter when the sunny days return.

In a recent Huffington Post article: Happiness: Remembering the Sun is always Shining…author, Maura Sweeny, had an epiphany while visiting her daughter in London, where fair weather, is rather unfairly proportioned. Sweeny cited her dislike of cloudy, rainy days due to growing up in in a rather perpetual overcast area of New Jersey. So as soon as she was old enough to choose where she wanted to live she chose Florida where she is presently living quite happily ever after.

However, a couple of years ago, while visiting her daughter who lives in London, she had a sudden thought dawn on her. “The Sun is Always Shining.”

“The sun might become temporarily obscured by dark clouds — and, by analogy, life circumstances — but I could remind myself that it is always present. My thoughts just needed to be mindful of what was above the clouds rather than below them.”

Isn’t that what we need to remember when we have bouts of set-backs, overtly stressful periods, and anxiety attacks? We are being tested, in our faith, to see if we can still shine above the dark clouds where the “Son” of God sees nothing but sunshine pouring down on us.

I love this creative analogy of darkness and light (The Little Lightbulb) that I  discovered in a post from P31 Ministries by Holley Gerth.

“The best part of all is that we don’t have to be like the light bulb that said, “I have to find a way to shine!” The light bulb went to a self-help meeting to learn about its inner capacity for light. It read books about how to get brighter. Each morning the light bulb would get up and recite positive affirmations. “I am a light bulb. I believe in myself. I will shine!” But nothing happened.

Eventually the light bulb became weary and discouraged. It began to doubt who it was and what it could do. It almost burned out completely. Fortunately, one day the light bulb was carefully placed in a fixture. Light burst forth and filled the room. The light bulb finally understood. The key was not to try harder but to plug into the source.

Trying to shine on our own can be exhausting. Instead, we’re simply called to be closely connected to God and remain in Him. When we do, His light pours forth through us in powerful, brilliant ways that change the world. The ways we shine might not make the news, but they make even more of a difference than we can see.”

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So until tomorrow: Let us remember that the only way to rid the world and ourselves of darkness is to create more light to dispel it.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh