It's really not that I'm either all that obsessed with, or else all that interested in, the weather; and it's certainly not that I think weather is all that fascinating to most other people. (at least the kind that isn't anything more "dramatic" than, say, plain, old, Winter weather that can wear thin by the middle of February). It's just that by the middle of February (and with some Winters, more than others), it seems like some types of weather can kind of start to take up a higher percentage of a person's "background thoughts".

That is to say that even when one generally gets on the with the business of life, there's this other kind of "background"/"backdrop" stuff in life that have at least some effect on a person. Sometimes, and with some weather, that's nothing more than, say, kind of a dampening of mood. With other weather (as in the case of unrelenting, unrelenting, non-stop, horrible - although, I have to say, not really ALL that disastrous in the grand scheme of weather - cold and snow; it can go beyond just mood and start to actually affect day-to-day living. Things get postponed. Things get cancelled. Ice and/or temporarily melting ice makes its way to, perhaps, car-door looks or to some edge or corner of a house-door or house-window; and before you know it you're climbing out your basement windows, or else climbing into your car through the trunk. (Oh, OK, I'm exaggerating here, but you get the idea.)

Weather has its way of passing from one region to the next, so yesterday (and regardless of whether it was snow or flooding that was the issue for someone), people in one place or another seemed to start announcing that the sun was finally out. Now, one might think that I would quite automatically borrowed the coping technique of the famous, "Annie", and simply told myself, "The sun will come out tomorrow." After all, Annie is hardly the ever person or character (real, make-believe, or otherwise) who knew that sometimes one must just think about the fact that there's at least a good chance the sun will come out tomorrow (maybe it's even a certainty - or at least as anything in life can ever really be certain).

And Annie certainly isn't the only one to get to "tomorrow", only to discover that the sun actually didn't come out, or if it did it didn't shine as brightly as it ordinarily does (which case Annie and/or "whoever-else" simply tells himself/herself, once again, "The sun will come out tomorrow."

The thing is, whether we're thinking in terms of actual weather, or instead of metaphorical weather only; where we are and a lot of other factors can determine how bad things are and whether or not the sun shines brightly, just a little, or not at all.

Telling ourselves, "The sun will come out tomorrow," is, I suppose, better than telling ourselves that it's never going to shine brightly again; because most times and in most seasons (some more than others) the sun does come out. It can sometimes be a matter of whether it actually comes out tomorrow or, instead, not until next week.

For today, this minute, and this particular post, I'm not concerning myself with metaphorical weather, however. I'm referring to the plain, old, regular, weather. And, for today, that sun not only finally started to shine, but did so brightly enough to plain, old, make me feel a lot better than I've been feeling with all the gray, cold, snow, and ice.

That's thing: Telling ourselves that the sun will come out tomorrow can help us feel a little better when all we see is a big, gray, sky; but making sure to notice (and I mean REALLY notice) those times when the sun shines brightly and skies are almost a blinding blue is probably an even more important and helpful thing for us to do.

In any case, and at least for today, the sun made a nice appearance and certainly did its job brightening up a whole of things. So - excellent!!! :)

Image: ME Whelan