After having spent many of my years as a young man working for Corporate America, I checked out of it for a few years to pursue something. I wasn’t sure what that something would be, though I had an idea. But before jumping into a new career, I chose to take some time off and relax and read and learn. I delved into the world of self-help, spirituality, new age, religions, etc., and devoured countless hours and what would become years of listening to cassette tapes, watching videos, reading books and attending seminars and talking to people more knowledgeable than I, at the time, in these fields.
I quickly started to make sense of the world I was sensing but wasn’t connected to. I started to “remember” things I had thought as a child, or knew as a child, but was told, I was wrong, or scolded for thinking the way I was thinking. When I first started to read the books I was thinking things that only later on would I find were corroborated by other books, ideas and understandings that had come to me. I started to realize how disconnected I had been from what I knew to be true since as early as I could remember, and how disconnected I had become from all that I believed.
I had bought into so much of the “me” mentality, that I couldn’t see others like I used to be able to as a child. One such “unconscious” memorable moment was the first day of rain in the Fall of my “sabbatical.” I had left my corporate job/career and was temporarily living in my brother’s home and on that particular day, had the heater on, while I sat one late morning, most likely in my pajamas and robe, drinking warm tea, reading a book on spirituality and occasionally glancing out the picture window to see the rain coming down ever so gently on the trees, plants, and grass outside.
This was a time when everything started to come alive again for me. When I started to actually see the trees, for example, as if I had seen the for the first time, even though, as a child, the trees and I were great friends. I was rediscovering their beauty, their smell, their warmth. And as it rained I was taking in how happy the trees were as the first Fall rain had begun in normally dry and sunny Southern California.
In the midst of all this, I saw the postman walking up the walkway and I rushed to open the door to have the opportunity to say hello and “isn’t it a beautiful day,” kind of thing. I enjoyed greeting the postman as a child. He was a family friend and now as a grown up, I wanted to make sure I took this chance, this time, that I had gifted myself to live this life of paying attention to the detail I missed when I had to work 10 to 14 hour days and on average 6 days a week.
As we exchanged our pleasantries, and the mailman started to walk away, I gleefully shouted out to him, “Enjoy the Rain!” I was thinking that I wanted to remind him how beautiful the rain can be and how much I had missed enjoying it in my corporate world. I felt I had the benefit of this time to reflect on what was truly important and that I could impart some of my new remembered wisdom on him. I don’t recall the mailman being overly exuberant in his response to me, and frankly, I am not sure I even remember a response.
What I do recall however was my brother’s comment to me as soon as I closed the door and turned around to mellowly go back to my cozy seat, my tea, my book, and my moment. My brother broke me out of my reverie, so to speak, with “it’s no wonder people think you’re arrogant.”
Surprised by what he said, I insisted he explained to me how I could possibly have been thought arrogant for wishing someone, “enjoy the rain,” and for reminding someone how beautiful a rainy day can be. I am not sure if my brother thought I was being naive at that moment, or if I were truly that “me” oriented that I could not possibly see what he saw.
Though obviously not wanting a confrontation, my brother begrudgingly obliged and illustrated for me how I was making the comment about the rain, from the comfort of his home, while looking at the rain through the window. He went on to remind me how the mailman has most likely been already walking in the rain all morning and that he would continue to do so until the end of his work day. He mentioned how he was certain the mailman was concerned about the mail getting wet and concerned about slipping and falling and other hazards the rain could bring him in his current job.
My brother then walked away and left me with my thoughts. How could I possibly have been that disconnected from another person that I could not see, nor possibly think of a perspective different than my own at that moment. Here I was “studying” consciousness and spirituality and proud of my being able to intellectualize and have intelligent discourse about what I was learning and ideas that were coming to me. But in practice, I had not moved very much closer to that which was my goal.
I recalled this story as I sat in a beautiful house overlooking the ocean and had very interesting and profound discourse with the owner of the house who told me that people only see the negative in the world and complain too much. She went on to say that people should look at the positive. It was then that I thought of my story.
Thankfully, the lady continued and said, that she knew it was easier for her to say this from the comfort of her beautiful home, and that there are too many people suffering in the world who don’t know when their next meal will be or if they will have a home to live in. She ended her discourse with, no matter what our situation that we should always be grateful…, and in essence, those of us who have been gifted much, should be the gift for those who haven’t.
Though I am a very different person than the man who wished the mailman “enjoy the rain,” so many years ago, I got to see in someone else what it can look like to be inside the home while it rained and be conscientious of the people who are working in the rain.