Does anyone remember how we learned the weather forecast before smartphones?
I remember, long ago, my parents used to watch the weather forecast on the evening news on TV.
Most of the time, the day’s weather did not happen as described on the news.
We would still take precautions according to these predictions, with the happiness of believing that we had reduced the uncertainties in our lives to some extent.
For a while, during the transition from childhood to adolescence, the last thing I cared about was the weather. After getting dressed as I wanted and going out, I sometimes returned home to get an umbrella or to dress differently.
I had transitioned from youth to adulthood. It was around 2007, the communication technologies company I worked for, had developed a service that sent forecasts as SMS messages to phones. This was one of the firsts at that time.
I started using the service. I remember how much comfort it gave me to have the predicted weather delivered directly to my phone.
Nowadays, every time I want to learn forecasts, I open one of the applications and check.
There may be also those among you who ask Siri or Alexa.
Our communication with the weather is mostly done through third parties.
Eye contact with the rain
How wonderful it is that the buildings we live in, our clothes, and the apps protect us from the physical effects of harsh weather conditions.
However, we are still left with the emotional effects of weather.
I saw this much more clearly last week.
Although the Tiny-House, where we stayed in the forest, protected us from the weather conditions, it made the rain experience quite clear and intense for all four of our senses (sounds, smells, textures, images).
There was no need for an app or any other third party.
Thanks to the countless raindrops falling on the hut, I could not hear, see, or think about anything other than the rain.
This shouldn’t be a problem. I was sure that I loved this natural phenomenon, but especially its sound was starting to bother me a lot.
After a while, this symphony of drops formed a corridor in time.
Some of my old memories, which were hard times for me, came out of hiding and came through this corridor.
I realized that these old memories that reminded me of myself were not a coincidence.
All of them were accompanied by the sound and sight of raindrops hitting the glass. Triggered by the same sounds and images, they came back to the present.
Even though a lot of time has passed, the rainy memories of the times when my loved ones have gone from life appeared vividly. Since there was nowhere to escape, I looked at them again with my current self and had a clearer understanding than I had ever felt before that each of them was a difficult experience to go through.
Perhaps for the first time, I truly saw how natural it was that the rain brought me a feeling of sadness that I had difficulty overcoming.
I also understood why I couldn’t realize my Hygge lifestyle dreams of sitting by the window on rainy days with hot tea in one hand, my favorite book in the other, my delicious cinnamon buns at one side, and softly glowing candles at the other!
My feet are on the ground. I’m in the moment.
Even though the constant rain in the forest made me feel like I was sailing on a ship far from land, I kept realizing that the soil absorbs water. I was on land. I was in the moment.
From those conditions, I was able to look back at those periods and give myself stronger consolations.
I was able to see the happy times I spent with my loved ones, with joy. Some of those days were also rainy, but we were cheerful.
By focusing on the beauties that life offers on rainy days, I added new ones to them by taking long walks with my family around the lake.
As I left the hut at the end of our vacation, I headed home with joy, like a crew who had completed her duty on the ship.
It is clearer now the sweet distance that the modern buildings we live in put between us and this natural phenomenon.
Frankly, I’m happy with this distance. However, I’m not that bothered by feeling the rain anymore and happy to get close to it.
I am reminded of Kidlin’s Law: “If you can write the problem clearly and concisely, half the problem is solved. This means that only by fully understanding the problem can you come up with an appropriate solution.”
Maybe now I can try Hygge practices again.
