Bad weather often bums people out. Not me. I love a stormy day, and the stormier the better. I wasn’t always this way. As a child I was a major grump if I woke up to one of Mother Nature’s mood swings. My six-year-old self would dramatically declare, “The day is ruined! I can’t go outside and play!”
My mom would always counter these moments of despair with, “It’s not a rainy day; it’s a creative day.” And then suggest we light a fire and commit ourselves to a project. I didn’t realize it at the time, but she was giving me an invaluable lesson in patience and re-channeling my energies when confronted with elements outside my control, like bad weather. I learned to love a rainy day because it presented an opportunity to create something, and eventually that became my association.
I get a certain rush now when the weather is furious. It heightens the senses and triggers something, a passion. What possibilities can be harnessed from this chaotic energy? External forces unleash the imagination in ways unknown until that first clap of lightening or a foreboding shift in light. A jaundice sky gives way to an eerie cloud pallet as the artist readies her entrance.
This shift in nature, be it dramatic or subtle, is a welcome presence. Even just the awareness of rain against the window in the morning awakens something in me. The sound almost becomes a clarion call for creativity, inviting a rewiring of the mind and thoughts.
Harnessing it is as unpredictable and mysterious as the elements themselves, which is what makes the creative process exciting, frustrating, and ultimately invigorating. The magic and madness of Mother Nature, tapping into our own in some ways…
WOMcity 