Swimming in the Rain

So yesterday I posted about my attack of the Glums, during a(nother) rainy day on my Cornish holiday.

As you know, our default reaction to Glum is.....Drink! The panacea to all evils.

Instead, I posted, and you lovely people came back with amazing wise words.

Ulla, my wonderful Danish friend, told a story about her childhood. She said that one of her favourite memories was of her mother suggesting a swim. "But it's raining!" young Ulla replied (I imagine her with eyes as deep and blue as the fjords, and blonde hair in plaits, wearing a red, gingham pinafore). "So what?" replies Mum (who looks like Meg Ryan) "we're going to get wet anyway!"

Suddenly I remembered a post I wrote back in The Mists of Time (May, to be more precise) about a motto I'd just come across. It went like this:

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass, it's about learning to dance in the rain

It's true. The more we react to adversity by holing up and hunkering down (whether or not we're drinking) the more scared we get next time. Our world gets smaller and smaller.

However, if we run out into the storm, if we turn it into an experience, if we actually start dancing, then next time we'll be braver. We'll know we can do it. Our world gets bigger and more filled with promise.

So, thanks to Ulla, we all donned our wetsuits and headed to the beach. It was late in the day, so the sun (what we could see of it) was low and the tide was going out, leaving huge calm pools of water among the rocks.

We dived in, and I lay there in the drizzle, floating on my back feeling like Momma seal (or sea cow, perhaps?) surrounded by her cavorting cubs.

(The moment was nearly ruined at one point by Mr SM when #1 said "where's Mummy?" and he replied "she's been beached!")

I looked up and watched the clouds clearing in the sky. I felt the clouds clearing in my head. I proved to myself that I can dance (and swim) in the rain, and hopefully I made some memories that (like Ulla) my children will never forget.

I could, on the other hand, have opened a bottle of wine and drunk all afternoon. Then yelled at the kids, gone to bed and tossed and turned all night.

Go figure.

Love SM xx