Up until yesterday, it had been raining for, like, 50 days straight. I kid you not. 50 days of gloomy skies and water falling from the sky causing the whole New Haven area to flood. The worst part besides my straight hair frizzing? All the drivers that think the rain will suddenly make their cars malfunction so they need to drive as slow as possible so their precious clunk of metal on wheels isn’t over worked. People just hate the rain in the city. It ruins all their plans of sitting outside on the cafe patio and drinking their expensive coffee. And I must admit, after 50 days of rain, I was over it too. Where I grew up, rain was rarely a bad thing. I remember so many times going outside as a kid to play in it as my mom watched from the window smiling because we were in desperate need of rain for the crops. Come to think of it, it might have been lightning too, but whatever. There were very few times that I can remember my parents actually being upset because it rained. It also meant that my dad would come in from the field with that amazing smell of fresh air and dirt. Call me crazy, but I think that is what a man should smell like. In fact, I believe it so much, I married a man who regularly comes home smelling just like that. Except he brings in bits of concrete as well. Tisk tisk.

But…..I digress.

Here is where I am going with this. The sun made an appearance yesterday so I took advantage of it and put on the ol’ running shoes. As I was running (er,  jogging), I was just so happy. I had this amazing feeling of nothing flood over me. I couldn’t even relate it to any sort of emotion (and if you ask Andy, I have at least half a million of them). I saw this quote today and it made me think that after being cooped up and somewhat stressed over stupid things. I think this is what I was feeling.

I was reminded that I do like to run (sorry, jog). I was reminded that the rain isn’t so bad and is essential to my family’s happiness. I was reminded that being stressed over dumb things just ain’t worth it.

Feeling stressed? Upset? Angry? Anxious? Get up from your desk and go outside for 10 minutes. I promise they won’t miss you. You have my permission. Take a deep breath and just “be”, pray, think, or whatever you need to do to realize who you are and who you want to be.

PS. It didn’t really rain for 50 days straight. It was only like 3. I’m sorry. I won’t lie to you again. Until I do.