It’s just a rainy season
Sweepin’ across my sky
It’s just a rainy season
And I don’t have a reason to cry
—Crumbächer, “Rainy Season”

Here in central Florida we live in a tropical climate. Thus, between the months of June and October we can pretty much set our watches by when it starts and stops raining every afternoon. The geographic shape of Florida as a peninsula also contributes to this, in that the prevailing winds coming off the Gulf of Mexico to the west collide with the ocean breeze coming off the Atlantic to the east, with no real topography to break it up, causing the thunderheads to pile up and dump their loads pretty much right over our heads.  Weather radios are a common household item to pick up those severe thunderstorm or even tornado warnings.  Mind you, our tornadoes are nowhere near the kind you’d see along Tornado Alley in the midwest, but we do get them.

Ultimately, the summer weather makes it a pain in the derrière to commute back and forth to Tampa on the Burgman (my sole transportation at this point).  I did it all last summer (when I had a job) and managed to “keep the rubber side down” on I-4 through some nasty stuff.  I’m a lot more comfortable riding in bad weather than I was when I started riding a few years back.

We desperately need the rain this year, though. In spite of our being in tropical climes, Florida has been in a drought for the past few years. It reached the point that a couple of months ago the local reservoir had just a one-day supply of water that they couldn’t get out. So, as much as we hate the rain and hate having to travel in and through it, at the same time it’s welcomed like an old friend to replenish water supplies and make the area lush and green again.

Ever notice that life has its seasons, too? It’s a rainy season for me personally.  I hate the storms, but at the same time it’s an opportunity to refresh, clean out some past mistakes, and start growing again.  There will be some hurricanes still to go through (both personally and literally, as hurricane season starts on June 1st). But this is life.

Remember this: we don’t often choose what life flings at us, but we can choose what we do with what life flings at us.