Learning from Rainstorms

There is something to be learned from a rainstorm. When meeting with a sudden shower, you try not to get wet and run quickly along the road. But doing such things as passing under the eaves of houses, you still get wet. When you are resolved from the beginning, you will not be perplexed, though you still get the same soaking. This understanding extends to everything.

Hagakure

The acceptance of what is. The acceptance of your current reality. Of inevitable realities. The understanding that futile efforts to change inevitable realities will only make things worse. That’s what this passage is about…plain and simple.

Too many of us refuse to take this into account. To our own detriment.

There are three things I take from this passage.

The first, is that this passage would be written differently if you could keep yourself dry by running under the eaves. This isn’t about giving up and just accepting a miserable situation. Not all effort to keep yourself dry, or to put yourself in a better place, is futile. It’s only that wasted energy on something inevitable…that’s the issue here.

The second, is that rain isn’t that bad. Why does a little wetness bother you so much? This is the driving mantra of the Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff books. You will be wet only until you get home and dry off…usually a short time away. Usually without even the use of a towel. Most things in life are just not that big of a deal. Don’t treat them as such.

And third, there are a few things in your life that are probably not great. And out of those, there are a few that you can not change. A boss at your dream job who forces you to do something you really hate every week, the debt you built up years ago and the heavy interest payments are saddling you, a husband that takes out his bad days on you all the time.

Yet when these things occur or come up again in your life, you get frazzled, and let them ruin your day. Or week. Take a step back and look at your life. You need to understand that these things happen…regularly. You have had them happen to you over and over again. As many times as you have experienced a rain storm…maybe more.

Do not let anything, that you absolutely know is going to happen, something that’s happened to you so many times before, that you can’t possibly change, ruin your day. These are things out of your control.

Yes, you will get the same soaking. It will just feel like rain water on your clothes. Which, when you think about it…who cares?