Today was another rainy day in Seattle so I went for a walk around Greenlake Park and had fun duck spotting. I saw mallards, seagulls, a comerant, and also a bunch of mud hens, which I've never seen here before, and they have crazy dinosaur feet!
Some folks have asked about how I deal with so many rainy days without getting depressed. It isn't so much that I don't recognize the repetition of dark clouded days, but rather that I can switch my focus from the big picture of darkness to the tiny, colorful, and bright pockets. It's similar to looking at the night sky. The stars are always there - always shining and beautiful, but we can't see them during the day. We need the darkness to better appreciate their light. Without the darkness, we are blind to the light shining all around us.
Like anything - if you have too much of it you get desensitized to its beauty. Too much food and you can't taste anything, too much pain and you forget life without it, too much light and you never see the stars. Too much is different for everyone. What is too much for me may be just getting started for you. For example, running 4 miles is too much for me, but I know people you habitually run 7 a day. But if you asked me if the weather here breeds depression - well, for some folks it does. Honestly, it can be too much for many folks here and they can get pretty down. But, maybe because I'm from a northern climate, for me it doesn't. I haven't had too much. In fact, I quite like it! :-)
So don't see the grey skies and get depressed. Look closer and see the neon green lichen, the bold white patterns of the American Coot (or mud hen), the rainbow in the hot cocoa, the gold of last year's reeds, the emerald of new vegetation. Yes, the sky is grey. But that's just the backdrop! It makes the stars visible. It makes the little pops of color and laughter and brightness ever more valuable, and this place wouldn't be the Emerald City without it.
Some folks have asked about how I deal with so many rainy days without getting depressed. It isn't so much that I don't recognize the repetition of dark clouded days, but rather that I can switch my focus from the big picture of darkness to the tiny, colorful, and bright pockets. It's similar to looking at the night sky. The stars are always there - always shining and beautiful, but we can't see them during the day. We need the darkness to better appreciate their light. Without the darkness, we are blind to the light shining all around us.
Like anything - if you have too much of it you get desensitized to its beauty. Too much food and you can't taste anything, too much pain and you forget life without it, too much light and you never see the stars. Too much is different for everyone. What is too much for me may be just getting started for you. For example, running 4 miles is too much for me, but I know people you habitually run 7 a day. But if you asked me if the weather here breeds depression - well, for some folks it does. Honestly, it can be too much for many folks here and they can get pretty down. But, maybe because I'm from a northern climate, for me it doesn't. I haven't had too much. In fact, I quite like it! :-)
So don't see the grey skies and get depressed. Look closer and see the neon green lichen, the bold white patterns of the American Coot (or mud hen), the rainbow in the hot cocoa, the gold of last year's reeds, the emerald of new vegetation. Yes, the sky is grey. But that's just the backdrop! It makes the stars visible. It makes the little pops of color and laughter and brightness ever more valuable, and this place wouldn't be the Emerald City without it.
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