Rain

Sometimes, it rains in life. I know, not a very deep thought there, but the phrase “rain” could be used for a multitude of things.

Boy A has not been able to play baseball with his teammates in almost a month, because of the rain. And when he asked this morning if he was going to play, I just said “buddy, sometimes, it rains.” And it stinks for a kid to hear that, but it is true.

I used the word rain very carefully in explaining the cancellation of his game today, because it is not just playing baseball. My wife and I have started a weekly conversation about were we are financially for the week, progress of paying off debt, things that we need to be thinking about and focusing on for the coming weeks.

There has been a lot going on lately in our lives, ranging from my son’s surgery all the way to my wife deciding to short sale her condo. This has been a debt that has heavily weighed on us and I can not begin to count the number of sleepless nights that I have had over this property. This was the house that my wife purchased about 2 months before we had our first date, so we had never even met!

This is the house where my wife cooked for me for the first time, where my children spent the first 4 years of their life and a place where we laughed, cried and figured out how to start being a married couple. So there were a lot of feelings with this one, both good and bad. And taking the emotional side out of it, this hurts my wife in a lot of ways, primarily in her credit.

So today, as I type this and cook lunch for the boys, I look over our finances and though we are no were near where I want us to be! I do for the first time see a light at the end of the tunnel. My family is safe. My kids are healthy. And though I have struggled with the idea of doing a short sale, for many reasons, after getting some really good advice from a family friend, I agreed.

And as I told my son this morning, “sometimes, it rains”, I realized that I wasn’t just telling him that about his game. But I was I was also giving myself from reassurance too, because if this short sale goes through, yes it will be a though time financially for the next several years for us, but we will also not be sitting under the dark cloud that this condo has placed over us.

So in life, sometimes it does rain, but after the rain stops, there is often times a big rainbow too.

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Every feel like life just throws more at you can handle? Well, this has been me for the last few weeks and when people have asked how I am doing, I just simply reply with Sometimes it rains and sometimes it doesn’t. I don’t why I have used that explanation of how I have been doing, I just have.

But in life, sometimes it rains and things are just difficult to deal with. Last night my wife and I were just talking about the things that were going on, our future, etc. and I just laughed and said that I was tired of it raining for a while on us. And after I said that, I heard the rain drops hit my grill outside. Maybe that was God’s way of saying, it’s ok, I’ve got you covered? I don’t know, but it provided a few good laughs and some relief.

As I was driving into work, I tried something different, I turned off all things that made noises and I listened. I listened to the rain hit my windshield. I listened to the silence. I tuned out all the crap going on around me and listened, because even though sometimes it rains in our lives, I feel like we at least have the protection of cover. I feel that we can always look at someone else and realize that our crap, isn’t really as bad as we thought.

So as I look outside and see the rain falling, I have caught myself singing this Lyle Lovett song, enjoy.

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