Spring's variable weather also forcefully reminds us that our lives are a balance of storms and sun, dark and cloudy periods of tragic pain followed by periods of the clear blue skies of joy. Yet both are necessary for our growth. As rain softens the ground hardened by winter frost and snow, so our times of stress and pain, and the tears that they bring, can soften the hard ground of our hearts and water the roots of newly germinating understandings and insights. As the powerful sun brings forth new growth and life, the warm radiance of peace and joy can bring into bloom new flowers of love and compassion to transform our hearts into fragrant gardens.
Weather patterns can be unpredictable. For example, American actress Piper Perabo notes "I don't know how you get dressed if you live in Wales because it's pouring rain and then it's hot sunshine and then it just might hail. it's just too confusing." In the same way, we are confused by the unpredictability of our lives. We don't know how to spiritually and emotionally "dress" in preparedness for the "weather ahead" of unpredictable tragedies and joys.
Some wounded people "prepare" for possible new tragedies by dressing in protective emotional armor that's so hard and unyielding that they force away love. Other wounded people use that same hard armor to protect themselves from feeling inner pain, and lose themselves in all sorts of technological distractions and other addictions. If we want to prepare for life in a healthy way, we clothe ourselves in a healthy garment, fashioned from fabric that "breathes," the garment of prayer, which allows in all our emotions and filters them through faith and hope so they can be transformed into gifts for our spirits.
Have you ever noticed that sometimes the people who have the most radiant faces and the most peaceful eyes are the ones who have endured the most tragedies? How can they radiate the sunshine of warmth and love into others' lives when they've endured so many dark, ominous clouds and storms?
They've learned to "dress for success" by clothing themselves with the "breathable" garment of prayer. The garment of prayer clothes us in faith and hope that the strong sunlight of God's enduring love for us may be hidden by the darkness of storms, but it is still present and real.
Fr. Ron Rolheiser says "You must try to pray so that, in your prayer, you open yourself to God in such a way that sometime - perhaps not today, but sometime - you are able to hear God say to you, "I love you." These words addressed to you by God, are the most important words you will ever hear because, before you hear them, nothing is ever completely right with you, but after you hear them, something will be right in your life at a very deep level."
Prayer clothes us in the constant deep inner peace and joy of knowing that God loves us. Prayer gives us the deep awareness that whatever "weather" blows into our lives, God and we can handle it so we'll never be deluged by despair. When prayer is our constant "weather gear" of choice, we can peacefully reassure others that God's sun is always shining, that God will always bring good to us out of everything that happens to us!
"We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose....If God is for us, who can be against us?"
- Romans 8: 28 & 31.