It is hard when you’re in the midst of a weather emergency to be thankful for the outdoors (which naturally includes weather). I was “trapped” at home this morning because the washes in my neighborhood were running, so I couldn’t drive through them to get to the freeway. Well I actually COULD have, but then you would have seen me on the news with the byline “Stupid Motorist Law.” No thank you! It is a problem when it rains a lot on the Superstition Mountains, but that doesn’t happen very often.

I did go outside while the washes were running to take a video for my husband, who has engineered some kind of flood control that he keeps tinkering with, so I could show him that it seemed to be working. I could hear and see the washes on two sides of the house rushing by and pretty full, but the yard was fairly dry. SUCCESS! But while I was out there thinking about the damage that the rain could (and does) do, I couldn’t help but think it is rain! Arizona needs rain. We don’t always need it all at once like we get it during our monsoon, but we do need it. It is the rain that helps the desert plants continue to grow and blossom beautifully each year. The rain helps keep our lakes and rivers full so fish can live to be caught by a recreational fisherman or a child on their first fishing trip.

And then there is a rainbow. A true beautiful miracle. Rainbows can mean something special to each person. When I was recently in Albuquerque, I saw double rainbows. What a treat! It was beautiful!

When the sun is shining, that is something to be thankful for too. The sun helps plants grow and give us our necessary Vitamin D. It also creates the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets day after day.

Once the sun goes down, and after some of the amazing sunsets we have here, the moon rises and the stars come out. I’m really lucky to live outside of the city, so with not so many street and house lights, we are able to actually see tons of the stars–and they are beautiful!

So when you have a chance to enjoy the outdoors and your weather, slow down and enjoy it. Nature is something we have absolutely no control over, so our choices are to complain and stress out about it or to do what we can to prepare for it and then relax and enjoy the beauty of it. Relaxing and enjoying nature sounds like so much more fun to me.