When April Showers Just Bring May Ice Fog

What’s that saying? April Showers Bring May Flowers? Well, what about when it doesn’t – not at all, not even a little bit – what about when April’s showers bring snow, ice fog and really cold drizzle that whips you in the face?

I’ve always been the type of person to let nature influence me – like it or not I’m much more likely to be a cheery person when the sun is shining and I can step outside without layers and layers of protective covering. But, like everything else in life, when it comes to weather we don’t always get what we want. The showers of life will inevitably come and sometimes they’ll last much much longer than we or anyone else thinks they will. And believe it or not, that can be a very good thing.

This past year has been a year of change to say the least – I got married, my business took off, I was getting more work than I knew what to do with (and loving it), and then the winds of change blew my way. My husband got a new job … in pretty much the Eastern most tip of North America and with in under a week I was faced with the task of packing up all of our belongings (thank goodness for friends!), saying goodbye to an apartment I loved, a city I loved, people I love, and a career I was becoming very excited about. Don’t get me wrong, I thought this new adventure would be exciting too – I was hoping for new experiences and wonderful excursions, success in one of my other loves – fitness education and training – and, most importantly, a whole year to give my writing an incredible amount of focus as I put the majority of my business work on hold.

So what has the move actually brought so far? Snow, a lot of snow. Wind, insane amounts of wind. Showers, both literally and figuratively.

The fitness training endeavours I thought I’d be able to pursue now that I’d have all this extra time? Big flop. Hours and hours devoted to planning and selling and free demos yielded very little success. I made the decision yesterday to cut my losses and halt those aspirations for the time being. My first response to this – disappointment and feeling like a failure. My second response – a great opportunity to refocus my energy!

I’m choosing to look at the positives – even more time to focus on an even stronger passion. Writing. My first novel length manuscript took 10 years for me to complete (off and on) and in the past 5 months I’ve written TWO novel length manuscripts – editing and rewrites still need to be done but they’re there, they exist, and if I can say so myself (and maybe I can’t), they’re not half bad! That’s success in my mind. Success I’m not sure I ever believed I could create so quickly.

So, in light of all these changes, I woke up this morning and was frustrated yet again to see snow coating the cars and the trees, to look at the weather forecast and see that it doesn’t end with these flurries, oh no, ice fog is on it’s way … ice fog? What the heck is that! – but it doesn’t matter because it’s all about perspective, right? The weather outside is giving me a chance to assess my focus within – to contemplate, to write, to do the work I love. And the spring will come. It always does – both literally and figuratively. Even when it doesn’t get here as soon as we’d like, never forget that every season has it’s beauty and April showers will eventually bring those flowers.