It has been a particularly wet June. Thunderstorms and heavy downpours have populated the weather map with no immediate end in sight. As a child, rainy days were always a disappointment. With less than a handful of reliable television channels and all other electronics non-existent, there was little distraction to keep us indoors. Even more, small houses would have put us underfoot (and subject to direct supervision) all day long. The summer ritual was to head outside immediately after breakfast to explore and entertain. Rainy, sloppy days would only complicate matters. The resulting mud would make the call to lunch a much more challenging undertaking as we were not allowed back indoors without a considerable scrub. And tree forts, bicycle rides and pick-up athletic events were all hampered during the cloudbursts.

As an adult, one becomes far more sanguine about the weather. Experience teaches that the only thing worse that having rain is having no rain. We can count ourselves blessed in a time when so many regions are experiencing record droughts. Once complaining about a delay on an airplane on the tarmac for a needed repair, a fellow passenger reminded me that the only thing worse that being on an airplane in need of repair on the ground was being on one with a mechanical failure while in the air. He made a good point.

The challenges we face in life, great and small, often support a much larger ecosystem. While a rainy day may be the bane of existence to a child hoping to play baseball, it also brings needed moisture to plants and wildlife, helps restore the water table and fills the rivers, reservoirs and streams. Wear a raincoat. Carry an umbrella. Sleep in. Develop a mechanism to endure the inconvenience. It will pass and we’ll likely be better off for it.