I awoke to the sound of howling wind and rain this morning. I immediately thought of walking three miles in the wind and rain. It was not an appealing thought. I tried to go back to sleep because it was only 5 am. I ended up resting until my alarm went off at 6:30. I did my 10 minutes of mindfulness meditation and then took a look at the weather report. The weather report said rain and wind with “gusts up to 60 miles/hour.” 60 miles an hour?!?!?! Then I clicked on “current conditions” and it said, “Cloudy. Wind 16 mph.” Well 16 is windy but much less gusty than 60 mph. So I got dressed and started my walk.

The best compliment I can give to the first part of the walk was “unpleasant but not horrible”. I mean, it wasn’t like I’d crash landed in the Andes and had to start eating my dead friends to stay alive. Secure in the knowledge that my plight was far less dire that that of the Donner Party’s, I kept walking.

It was not only windy, but the wind was blowing from a different direction than it does typically. The upshot of this is that it was not blocked by the homes I walk by daily. In fact I felt like I was in a little wind tunnel that ran between the houses and up and down the street. I reminded myself that it wasn’t raining.

About two miles into the walk, I thought, “Wow, this is my Forrest Gump moment. I’m like Lt. Dan when he’s up on the mast of the shrimp boat in the middle of a hurricane. As the wind and rain pound him, he yells something along the lines of, “Is that the best you got, God?”

Then I thought, “No, this is not my Forrest Gump moment.” I don’t really feel that way. Plus, I am not a traumatized, embittered, and alcoholic Vietnam veteran. By this time, I had warmed up from walking. I also had the miracle of the hot flash! Instead of being biting and harsh, the wind felt good. So I took the moment of the miracle of the hot flash to envision the wind taking away the fatigue and slightly low spirits I’ve been feeling these last few days.

Does this mean that I’m going to be one of those people who takes the “Polar Bear Plunge” by swimming in the sea during the dead of winter? No. It doesn’t even mean that I’m not going to continue to invest in the best outdoor gear that I can so that I can continue my walks, rain, snow, wind, or shine.

What it does mean is that I’m going to continue to play both the good and bad cards in the hand I was dealt, the best I can. Sanity, now that a cause worth getting out of bed for.