Feeling the weather
Melissa Hiebert
It is characteristic of Winnipeggers to gripe about the weather every chance they get. If it’s the winter, it’s too cold. If it’s the summer, it’s too hot. If it’s anything in between, people are too busy griping about the constant blockade of construction to care. Is there anytime when Winnipeggers can actually be content with the weather? What kind of weather would we need before you would turn to the person beside you and say, “Great weather we’re having today, eh?”
For me, it’s those few hours right before a raging summer storm, when it’s just past dusk and the electricity in the air makes your arm hair stand on end in anticipation of the awe-inspiring light show that is about to take place. It is this small window of time that fills me with as much energy and vitality as a werewolf in the presence of a full moon on a clear night.
Take a moment and think, what state of the world makes you feel the most alive? Is it the calming, peaceful sensation you get from winter’s first snowfall, snowflakes glittering and twinkling as they blanket the ground and prepare the greenery for a well-deserved sleep? Or maybe it’s the crisp, invigorating slap in the face of a cool autumn breeze as it sends your hair dancing in the wind? There are hundreds of different weather combinations that can make you feel as many different emotions, emotions that vary from person to person and are dependent on an instantaneous state of mind.
Largely the weather is ignored, unless it interferes with our daily plans. We hardly ever accept anything less than a clear, room temperature day as perfect. We all notice the weather; flipping the television to the weather channel is part of a daily morning routine for some of us. But when do we actually stop and feel the weather? When do we pay attention to the effect it has on us, or even just sit there and allow it to affect us, or acknowledge that it is this shift in the atmosphere that allows us to witness the changing artwork that is nature all around us? Can we fully grasp that it is the cycle of the rain and the sun that forms the very basis of our existence and allows for growth and life?
Weather is truly a beautiful thing that we take for granted. This is especially true here in Winnipeg, for we are fortunate enough to experience a full range of weather but never seem to stop complaining about it. Weather is a common occurrence that we experience everyday, but we rarely stop to think about everything that is working to make it happen. The rotation of the earth. Earth’s orbit around the sun. And even on a long-term scale, the global precession as the earth’s very axis changes its angle and its position. The seemingly random and chaotic pattern of weather here on Earth has a sense of profoundness when you think about the precision and order of the earth’s cycle that works to cause it.
Once in a while we should venture outside of our controlled homes and take a moment to really feel the weather. Take an invigorating walk in the rain instead of running under awnings for cover. Remember that the rainwater that kisses you on the cheek now is the very same that has been caught in an endless dance of evaporation and fall since our humble beginning. Stare at the beauty and majesty of fluffy white clouds as they pass overhead instead of staring at flashy music videos on television. Really experience the world with all of your senses, and allow yourself to become one with the world in which you reside.
Usually we discuss the weather in blanketed terms of cold and rainy equals bad, sunny and warm equals good. We should learn to embrace our range of weather in its entirety, the change of state and mood of the world as we experience it. Maybe your soccer game was rained out, but how does it make you feel as you lie in the middle of the field and let the rain fall on you, thinking not about ruined plans, but living in that moment; experiencing this small miracle?
The weather can influence a wide range of emotions, spark creativity and provoke thought. We can’t control the weather (as much as we wish that we could) but we can be thankful for its simple blessing and learn to feed off it instead of ignoring it or considering it a burden. Just as the weather allows for life and growth in the natural world, it can assist us on our way to personal growth from within.
Melissa Hiebert is a philosophy student.
