Silver Lining

The evening was especially beautiful as we stepped outside, in fact it was so beautiful that our eyes were immediately drawn upwards to the sky. The cloud formations were stunning – stark billowy puffs of white laid out upon the deep azure blue. My daughter and I exclaimed upon its loveliness.

Within minutes, as we were driving away, I looked into my rear view mirror and where beauty had been, a dark ominous sky was appearing, growing darker by the minute. It was quickly looming over us and we exclaimed that surely a big storm must be coming our way.

As I looked again, I noticed the beautiful clouds we had observed were now obscured by darkness, yet there was a sliver of light appearing behind the edges, a silver lining that was quickly gone.

Isn’t that how life is so many times? One minute everything is bright and beautiful and yet it can change in a heartbeat. Our sunshine can turn into overwhelming darkness before we even have a chance to prepare ourselves for the different circumstance…as if we could.

We continued on to our meeting and I found myself beating myself up for leaving my umbrella in the garage instead of having it with me when I needed it. And I quickly thought ‘what if’ I can’t park close enough and ‘what if’ my clothes are ruined, not to mention my hair… and how will I look to go into this important meeting...and what will people think? All such inconsequential thoughts when we need rain so desperately, when the lakes are drying up and there is not enough water in the wild to take care of its population.

Why is it that we tend to worry and obsess about the darkness? We speculate and wonder about the ‘What If’’s’ - ‘What If’’ this happens and ‘What If’’ that happens. To our dismay, our negative self talk jumps in takes over our every waking minute when the question to ask ourselves is ‘how much of what we worry about is based in truth and how much is hidden behind fabrication’?

As we begin to wander down that unenchanted path of worry and speculation we must catch ourselves at the crossroads. We must take the other route of allowing ‘what is’ to be ‘what is’ ~ without reading more into it than is already there. We must take the path of resting on truth and allowing life to unfold naturally, without us having to read our stories into it.

The truth of the matter is, as we left our meeting yesterday and went outside – there had been no big storm, only a gentle sprinkling of rain that barely wet the ground. Isn’t that so like life and so like us? We think the worst only to be surprised by the lightness that most situations bring. In the interim however, we have conjured up every dark scenario we can possibly imagine within the deep confines of our mind. We have made ‘mountains out of molehills’ as the old saying goes and so much energy has been expended on worry for things that never appear.

The lesson that remains in my mind from last night is that as the darkness was overtaking the light, there was that brief moment when I caught a glimpse of the silver lining that appeared. I remember it well, in fact it’s beauty is etched into my mind…the reminder that even in darkness there is light, and in every new morning there is a dawning and hope is everlasting – if we but allow life to unfold naturally and wholly in it’s own elegance.

Judy Womack is a Life Coach working with individuals and businesses to help them achieve greater success. To find out more about coaching, visit her website at www.pivotalplace.com or call 972-699-9402.