Journal: Friday, May 12, 2006

I’m staying dry, warm, and cheerful during these seemingly endless days of dreary, cold rain. Day after day, for what seems like weeks, the dampness has surrounded us. As I’m doing my early morning reading and writing, there’s no visible sunrise due to the ever-present clouds, and the evening sunsets are just as non-existent. From morning to midnight to morning, there’s been only sogginess, obscurity, and the pervasive cold. (Is this May, you ask? Yes indeed – May in New England.) I’m surviving, though – and actually, more than surviving. After all, there are other ways to cheer myself up than by feeling warm sunlight on my face – like reading inspiring poems, or watching students at school dashing around with their usual ebullience. And there are other ways to find warmth – like thinking warm thoughts, or teaching a lesson that plants new seeds of knowledge inside my students. Yes, I’m doing all right, thank you. Actually, I consider this stretch of so-called gloomy weather to be a blessing. It’s a gift – a fine opportunity to prove, again, that happiness is within, not without. Whether the sun is warming us or a weeks-long storm is soaking us, I can feel contentment carrying me quietly along. Happiness doesn’t need sunshine; all it needs is a present moment to rejoice in – and, thankfully, I always have that.