What life's all about

I love the rain. It's so refreshing. Exciting. Exhilarating. This weather has been phenomenal and this morning was the best yet. My roommate and I went to a ward breakfast thing, and then decided to go for a walk in the rain. It had really started pouring by the time we left and we soon realized that we would be drenched before we made it home. So we gave in to the moment and decided to fulfill the goal we'd made to go puddle jumping the next time it rained.

It was so much fun. There were puddles all over. I felt like a little kid again. Our pants, shirts, hair- everything was soaked, and by the time we made it home our legs were numb from the cold, but it was amazing. Seriously, I think that's what living is all about. That's what makes life fun. There was a little bit of sun peeking out from the clouds, warming the earth as the rain made its way down in the stillness of the morning. No one was outside; well, no one except a few church goers who looked at us like we were crazy. But what does it matter? I'm so happy. I feel so light and free. We decided we were praising God, rejoicing in His creations and the life He'd given us, so it was okay to run home when we got too cold(even though it's Sunday). When we got here I changed out of my wet clothes and went outside to ring the water out of my pants, and I just stood there looking at the beauty, and I realized how lucky I am to be alive. To be alive today, now, and to have the rest of my life before me. Forget being sad.

"Everything flows and nothing stays...you can't step in the same river twice." ~Heraclitus.

I guess that means to me that things come and go, sadness comes, happiness comes, and then they go, rainstorms last for a little while and then they too leave; there's such a short period of time to enjoy them, that I want to take advantage of each moment and not let it pass me by, not think.."well, next time I'll play, but right now I'm too busy..." Or even to think that sad moments mean all of life is sad, or nothing will work out for me. The bad passes as quickly as the good, as long as we are transient, fluid, take it all as it comes then let it go. Life really is like a river, always changing, always moving, (think Pocahontas here), and it's so easy to resist, to fight the changes and the streaming water. Why? I don't want to be the same tomorrow that I am today. So why do I want things around me to be the same? This is so random; I just wanted to say something about the rain, and look where it took me. Well, here's another quote to finish up this silly train of thought, taken from a book called Wherever you go, there you are.

"Letting go..is an invitation to cease clinging to anything...It is a conscious decision to release with full acceptance into the stream of present moments as they are unfolding. To let go means to give up coercing, resisting, or struggling, in exchange for something more powerful and wholesome which comes out of allowing things to be as they are without getting caught up in your attraction or rejection of them, in the intrinsic stickiness of wanting, of liking and disliking." ~Jon Kabat-Zinn