When It Rains, It Pours

Have you ever had a moment when it hits you, that you have become a shiny new version of yourself?

It hit me tonight; I have pretty quickly evolved into the next version of Caiti. I’m a believer that not only do we begin and end chapters of our lives, but entire books as well. And I think I just began a whole new book of my own…

It seems so much easier to come to realizations about what we don’t want in life, through on-going turmoil, unfortunate events, poor judgment and uncontrollable circumstances that leave us powerless to learning a lesson and trying to get out alive. Why is it that those negative experiences seem to be so much more powerful in holding us down, than the positive ones do bringing us up? I find that when it rains it pours—both in our favor and against.

When you wake up late, can’t seem to get your hair to work and accidentally burnt your coffee taking way too long to get out the door, your whole day seems to follow suit. When you wake up to a cute text message, your skinny jeans fit flawlessly and step outside to gorgeous weather…your whole day seems to follow suit.

2009 rained for me. It poured negativity and I only victimized myself to what felt like entrapment. I woke up late on January 1st, had a bad hair day on June 15th and burnt my coffee all year long while insignificant progress lulled in between. When 2010 rolled around I made the decision this year was going to be something completely different. I was going to be different.

This year, in the few shorts weeks that have gone by, I’ve shifted my wake-up-late-bad-hair-day mentality to taking my life into my own hands. I decided to stop waiting, and make things happen.

When it rains, it pours, and it goes both ways. If you can trick the system and push through a bad hair day by putting on a cute hair or throwing your hair up in a messy do and facing the day with a huge grin on your face and say, “ha!”, you can surely tilt the scale back in your favor. The more you do, the more happens to you. And the more that happens to you, the more you discover all the gorgeous things you want in your life.

One of the beautiful parts of my life are the amazing people in it. I feel so blessed.

Recently a new person has come into my life that has reminded me of the power good people can have in our lives. So often we allow for toxic people to soil our bright outlook and come between the vision of being the greatest version of ourselves.

Having moved to California from a small town in Pennsylvania almost seven years ago, I have learned that not only is it okay to be selective about who you surround yourself with, but it’s the golden rule. People make such a large impression on us. We see a successful person and sort of mentally put them up on this mentor pedestal. On the contrary, when we’re chatting it up with someone at the bar who uses harsh language and offensive profanity every other word, we stop and think…”what the f*ck buddy?” Our tone immediately shifts gears and our brows furrow as we attempt to keep on the same pissed off page.

I’m not saying everyone is weak to morph into every influence around us, but the people who fill our current atmosphere absolutely help set the tone, and all it takes is a tone to shift that scale back against optimism and gaining positive things out of an experience.

Aside from fighting against the presence of toxic people, there are people out there who actually enhance our life experience. They don’t drain us of our resources; they bring some to the table. Someone came into my life this year who has shown me life can be good to me again. He is someone who wants only good for everyone. I am so grateful for all those I have in my life that are that good to me and so happy to have yet another person who shows me, it’s all worth it.

It may not be as easy as faking a smile out the door when something just plain crappy has started out our day, but with a little bit of fight, we can make it pour positivity, pour opportunity. We can relish this life and it’s infinite paths, and walk tall with a stupid grin on our face…