
It’s Jangma (Typhoon) season here in Korea, and we haven’t seen a clear sky in weeks. The rain is off and on throughout the day, coming in small bursts of brutally heavy rain. Five minutes outside and you look like you’ve taken a complete shower fully clothed. The recent weather reminds me of that scene in Forest Gump when he’s fighting in Vietnam. “One day it started raining, and it didn’t quit for four months. … Little bitty stingin’ rain… and big ol’ fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath.” This is life in Korean during Jangma season.
I find myself thinking of how sometimes our minds and our spirits go through Jangma seasons, too.
I talked in a recent post about going through bouts of depression and loneliness; sometimes these bouts can last for a few days or a few weeks or even months. However long the phase might last, there are good moments and bad moments. Like during a rainstorm; sometimes the sky unleashes all its fury in a moment of torrential downpour so fierce you wonder who could’ve possibly so angered the Gods, then it settles into something calmer and lighter, sprinkling just enough to ruin your hair… Then, sometimes, it’ll stop completely and the clouds will break and you will see the sun.
I don’t think there is a real pattern. It seems pretty random to me. Today, the rain hasn’t stopped whatsoever, bouncing back and forth sporadically and at its own free will from a sprinkle to a let-me-save-some-time-and-shower-outside kind of rain.
If the rain came down in some kind of orderly pattern, it would be much easier to deal with.
I love the rain. I love thunderstorms. I love watching flashes of lightning from my window and listening to the boom of the thunder. I love the sound of rain hitting the roof. I love the way the trees seem to dance with delight in a rainstorm, reaching toward the sky and soaking up all they can with their leafy fingertips. And, of course, I love the smell after it rains.
But I much prefer it to be outside rather than in.
Thunderstorms of the mind are a much different kind of storm.
Nevertheless, they hold similar patterns of off and on, stormy and clear. Occasionally the sun will poke its fingers through the clouds to remind us it’s still there. And, eventually, the clouds will break for good and Jangma season will end.
And at the end of the storm we will look for the rainbow.
