Feel The Sun

By: Frank Jackson

“If you want the rainbow, you have to put up with the rain”

The Darkness Prevails…

These are tough times for everyone right now. Some of us struggle with the impossible balance of working fulltime in our makeshift offices while also caring for a full house. Some have lost their source of stability, routine, and peace. Others are alone. Whatever the case may be, it can be easy to become trapped under the darkness of it all. Even when the sun shines brightly through our kitchen window, the shade created by the confines of our home overpower any sense of sanity we have clung to. Our efforts are dampened by the fortified prison of thoughts. The darkness prevails.

However, often it is those very thoughts that could give us the freedom we all seek to some degree. My dad wasn’t a man of many words. He never sat me down for a talk where he lectured me with golden nuggets of wisdom that I’d one day reflect on thankfully. I was left to figure things out on my own. When he passed, I was tasked with the daunting task of cleaning his apartment. That meant clearing a lifetime's worth of things in a week, deciding what to keep and to give away. Furniture, clothes, mail, dishes, forgotten packages, gifts, memories of my childhood and his. In that, I found myself shackled by the grief of the moment. Rightfully so, I allowed the darkness to win. On the final day of this assignment, I discovered a stack of mail with scattered thoughts written all over like graffiti. He was one to hold on to all of his mail because “you never know”, so this stack was no surprise. As I shuffled through the stack to make sure nothing was of relevance to the current reality, I discovered a quote:

“If you want the rainbow, you have to put up with the rain”

In that moment, I learned possibly the most important lesson from my father. A soundless piece of advice that perfectly matched his style. In one of the toughest times I was mentally liberated as I hope all of us will be during this time of isolation and unknown. However large or small the troubles we face, it will not stop the rainbows that always appear. 

I hope that we don’t invalidate our experiences with comparison. However, I do hope that we all know that regardless of our circumstances we still enjoy the light. When we realize that the dark clouds don’t stop us from feeling the warmth of the sunshine, life gets a lot easier. That’s peace.

In the spirit of feeling the sunshine, here are some practices that have helped me:

1. Write down or verbalize ‘5 things’ you’re grateful for a week

2. Perform a week’s worth of random acts of kindness (maybe a surprise care package to your favorite student)

3. Spend 30-minutes outside & speak to the strangers you see along the way (no headphones)

4. Workout in any form, get those endorphins 

5. Try meditation for a week or even stretching to music (first thing in the morning or before bed)

Quarantine or not, these actions have gotten me through life. Consistently choosing to pour into myself and others with simple tasks can make a world of difference in feeling that peace we all seek. Our minds are powerful and backed up with action, we are unstoppable. So next time we feel that storm coming, look up, smile, and remember, the sun is right behind it.