YOU CANNOT STOP THE STORMS OF LIFE

You cannot command every storm to stop.

You CAN learn how to travel through one.

The wind doesn’t always become weaker.

Sometimes…

YOU BECOME STRONGER.

Learning how to navigate through the storms of life is a very good idea.

Why?

Because they are coming.

Not because you did something wrong.

Not necessarily because you took a wrong turn.

Sometimes storms are simply part of traveling.

We are motion machines equipped with intelligence, ability, instinct, conscience and something else that often doesn’t reveal itself until needed:

RESILIENCE.

Wherever we go, there we are.

And we were designed to supervise, maintain, direct, learn, adjust and prevail through whatever comes our way.

Above-average capabilities?

Debatable at times, I know.

But nevertheless…

WE ARE REMARKABLY EQUIPPED.

YOU CANNOT STOP THE WEATHER

There is a lesson in nature that mankind keeps trying to negotiate around.

The storm does not ask your permission to arrive.

The wind doesn’t consult your schedule.

The rain doesn’t care that you had plans.

Life can operate the same way.

A problem arrives.

A relationship changes.

Something breaks.

Money gets tight.

A door closes.

Your plans get rearranged.

Suddenly the calm sea you were sailing becomes something else entirely.

Now what?

This is where the sailor in you has to show up.

ADVERSITY BUILDS US UP

I wrote in Pearls for the Soul:

“Good timber does not grow with ease. The stronger the wind, the stronger the trees.”

— Pearls for the Soul, PFS 6.14

Look at a tree that has spent years standing against wind, rain, cold and changing seasons.

It doesn’t complain about the weather.

It RESPONDS to it.

Its roots deepen.

Its trunk strengthens.

Its structure adjusts.

The wind did not merely attack the tree.

The resistance helped CREATE the tree that could withstand the next wind.

MMM?

Perhaps some of the things we spend our lives wishing had never happened helped build the person who is now able to handle what happens next.

THE CAPE HORN

There was a time when sailors earned something more valuable than another stamp in their passport by traveling dangerous waters.

Cape Horn became legendary because sailors knew what awaited them there:

Wind.

Cold.

Violent seas.

Difficult navigation.

You didn’t sail those waters and remain completely inexperienced.

The journey put some salt on your bones.

The sailor who came out the other side possessed something the sailor entering did not.

EXPERIENCE.

You cannot purchase that.

You cannot borrow it.

You cannot read enough books to completely duplicate it.

Some things must be traveled through.

COMPLAINING ABOUT THE PROCESS

Problems while journeying here on Earth are normal.

Yet we sometimes behave as though a problem appearing means life has malfunctioned.

“Why me?”

“Why now?”

“Why this?”

Fair questions.

Ask them if you must.

But don’t spend so much time questioning the storm that you forget to steer the ship.

Complaining doesn’t calm the sea.

Worry doesn’t stop the wind.

Fear doesn’t navigate.

At some point…

HANDS ON THE WHEEL.

DON’T MAKE THE STORM BIGGER

There is the actual problem…

and then there is everything we ADD to the problem.

Fear.

Panic.

Anger.

Resentment.

Imagining the worst.

Replaying what happened.

Blaming everybody.

Predicting tomorrow.

Now one storm has become six.

Deal first with what is actually happening.

Not what MIGHT happen.

Not what SHOULD have happened.

Not what somebody ELSE should have done.

WHAT IS HAPPENING NOW?

There is your starting point.

GETTING IN THE BULL RING

If you want to learn about bulls, sooner or later you have to get close enough to discover what a bull actually does.

Books can prepare you.

Advice can help you.

Someone else’s experience can warn you.

But eventually…

YOU ENTER THE RING.

Life has its own bull rings.

Starting a business.

Raising children.

Building relationships.

Making decisions.

Losing.

Starting over.

Risking.

Standing your ground.

Being wrong.

Trying again.

You take a few knocks.

You learn.

Then something fascinating happens.

THE BULL DIDN’T CHANGE

After enough experience, something that once frightened you appears again.

Only this time…

you don’t react the same way.

The bull didn’t become smaller.

YOU became larger.

The problem didn’t necessarily become easier.

YOU became more capable.

The storm didn’t lose its wind.

YOU learned how to sail.

That distinction is enormous.

THE MATADOR

After enough time in the ring—learning, adjusting, repeating and refining—you become familiar with what once overwhelmed you.

Experience begins replacing panic.

Judgment replaces reaction.

Patience replaces desperation.

You recognize movements you didn’t recognize before.

The mean bull doesn’t MEAN what it used to mean.

Not because the bull changed.

Because YOU DID.

You became the matador.

LIFE IS NO DIFFERENT

Another Pearl says:

“Adversity is never pleasant, but sometimes it’s possible to learn lessons from it that can be learned in no other way.”

— Pearls for the Soul, PFS 5.2

There it is.

Some knowledge comes through instruction.

Other knowledge comes through EXPERIENCE.

Nobody wants the difficult lesson while receiving it.

But years later, we sometimes discover ourselves using what that difficult season taught us.

Patience.

Discernment.

Courage.

Humility.

Endurance.

Compassion.

Perspective.

Those are expensive Pearls.

If you paid for them…

KEEP THEM.

LOOK BACK AT YOUR WEATHER REPORT

You have already survived storms.

Some you probably thought would never end.

Remember?

Yet here you are.

You got through days you didn’t know how you were going to get through.

You solved problems you didn’t initially know how to solve.

You recovered.

Adjusted.

Changed.

Learned.

Sometimes you crawled.

Sometimes somebody helped carry you.

Sometimes grace simply got you through another day.

But…

HERE YOU ARE.

Never overlook the evidence of your own journey.

THIS TOO SHALL PASS

Storms have something in common.

They MOVE.

No storm remains precisely where it began forever.

Neither does life.

The moment changes.

Circumstances change.

People change.

Answers appear.

New doors open.

Morning comes.

You may not control the timetable.

But knowing that movement is occurring can keep you from believing today’s storm is your permanent climate.

DON’T CURSE THE WIND

I am not suggesting we celebrate suffering.

Pain hurts.

Loss hurts.

Hardship is hardship.

But if the wind has arrived anyway…

USE IT.

Learn from it.

Let it deepen your roots.

Let experience sharpen your judgment.

Let difficulty teach you what comfort could not.

Take whatever Pearl the storm leaves behind.

Then continue.

FINAL THOUGHT

You cannot stop all the storms of life.

You were never asked to.

Your responsibility is to learn how to travel through them without allowing them to take away everything you know to be good, true and worthy within yourself.

The wind may howl.

The waves may rise.

Hold your position.

Adjust your sails.

Keep your eyes open.

And remember:

THE STORM DOESN’T ALWAYS GET WEAKER.

SOMETIMES…

THE SAILOR GETS STRONGER.

Tally Ho.

— Richie
Pearls for the Soul
when you feed the soul, you feed everything.
https://pearlsforthesoul.com