‘Ah, the weather is great today’, I hear my friend say as the sun bursts through the light, wispy clouds on this cool, winter morning in Tokyo.
“Tenki ii desu ne” (“the weather is good”), I hear passersby on the streets of Tokyo say as they greet each other with smiles behind their masks and a sparkle in their eyes.
But the weather is just the weather. It is neither good nor bad. There is no judgement in the weather. It just is.
The judgement is within us.
We can see a cloudy, rainy day as tenki ga warui, miserable weather Or,
We can receive it as calming, soothing, cleansing and rejuvenating. The perfect time to slow down and let the mental chatter subside.
We can see snow as an unwelcome inconvenience to our regular schedules, delaying our trains and buses, and slowing down our drive Or,
We can open our hearts to this marvel of nature, a unique, beautifully intricate yet fragile and fleeting existence.
The weather just is. Life just is. Maybe we can learn a lesson from them.