No Rainbows Without Rain

Good Morning Sunshines! “Everybody wants happiness. Nobody wants pain. But you can’t have a rainbow without the rain.” I read this once and remember it every now and again when it’s raining, like today. I think back on my life and some of the most painful things I ever went through and how, afterward, I was able to appreciate life just a little more. We rarely ever think about what positive will come from an event when we are going through something like a cancer or the loss of a loved one.

I am a breast cancer survivor and so thankful every day. I wasn’t always like that. I remember the day my thinking shifted. I was 29 about to turn 30 in a few days when I was told that I would have surgery a few weeks later. I called my best friends and they came and rallied around me. Saying all the things they are supposed to say, “You’ll be ok”, “We are here for you”, “We are praying for you”, “We love you.” I was so glad they were there. For my 30th birthday we got a hotel room at the beach (my happy place) and spent the weekend together talking about all the shenanigans we got into as teenagers and looking at old pictures and reading some of the notes we had that we passed to each other in the hall ways. The morning of my 30th I woke up early and one of my besties and I slipped out of the room to go watch the sun rise. We sat on the bench holding hands not saying a word. I remember praying and just wanting everything to be ok, when I felt a peace come over me that I will never be able to explain. It was at that moment I knew I must speak life into myself. No more negative “What If” stuff but “I will be ok”. I remembered looking at my friend and telling her, “Everything really will be ok.” She agreed with me but I don’t know that she fully understood what I meant at that moment. As the months followed, if anyone would say anything negative around me, I would shut them down, and that’s when she found out exactly what I meant. I am about to go on 16 years cancer free in a few months and that moment of rain changed my life. I still had bad moments, but how I chose to handle them were all different from the past. Even the darkest day I would try my best to find good. I want to ask you, if you are going through some rain right now, try and Find The Good In Your Life.