Sun, Wind & Rain

The sun is shining outside and it’s getting warmer every day.

It never ceases to amaze me that Australia has such a huge variety in weather, where it can be snowing in Victoria, while at the same time parts further North are deep into drought. Floods, bush fires, cyclones can all make up a typical summer in this country and remind us all that it pays not to take anything for granted, not even the weather.

There’s no great deep and meaningful lesson to be learnt from the weather apart from “be prepared” which is close to what Billy Connelly’s elderly aunt used to say to him about how there’s no such thing as bad weather, only bad preparation. In this part of the nation, preparation seems to revolve around being ready to deal with a flood and a few days without power and access to main roads. In other areas it’s a bush fire evacuation plan or how to keep the farm going one more season without rain.

It’s like there’s all too often a case of too much of something or not enough of something else to go around. Finding a balance can mean making the most of those times in between, where you have what you need and sometimes what you want as well. These times help you recharge and build stores of resilience to help you sail through those buffeting times where fire, water and wind don’t know when more than enough is too much.

Wouldn’t it be great if our minds and bodies could build up stores of resilience too, to have their own version of a disaster survival kit and survival action plan. It would have to be a very flexible and dynamic kit, along with a plan to be able to cope with all the different things that life throws at us. Something tells me that if we all had such a survival ability it would look very different for each of us. Which is something to think about when you see how differently people react to similar situations and you can’t help but wonder why.