Without a doubt, the weather is an ornament of our life with the potential to change our influx of emotions, but even so, we can influence how it changes, predominantly, through our mindset. For instance, because people habitually associate weather with emotions, writers sometimes utilise the imagery of weather, for example, rain and thunder, to influence the mood of a scene or the feelings of a character. I am one such character…
It was the excruciating dampness and heat of a rainy season’s tempestuous afternoon that made me feel unusually preoccupied, perturbed and lethargic. In an attempt to find inner tranquility through experiencing an alternative world, I grabbed a book from the shelf and started exploring a new realm. Engrossed in reading the novel on my bed, the faint sounds of pouring rain, bellowing thunder and roaring gusts of wind outside the balcony window became trivial.
Tersely, my focus was broken by the child upstairs’ dreadful blubbering. Gradually, my attention shifted to my surroundings. More sounds were perceived. It was subsequently conspicuous to me that the family upstairs were quarrelling. I could hear hollering exchanges between the parents and even household objects being thrown harshly on the floor, which caused a couple of disturbingly violent thuds. I became more fidgety.
Amidst this squabble, I unexpectedly picked up on the pacifying sounds of an accordion. It was the elderly lady downstairs. Enchantingly, the melody massaged the disquieting altercation upstairs, through a combination of strident dialogue, rasping clatter and the appeasing instrument that all resembled an amusement park ambiance. Idiosyncratically, this contrast, along with the “irate” storm, jogged my memory back to sixth grade, when I was on a school trip, hiking the Hui-Hang Road, an ancient trail between Anhui and Hangzhou.
“So clammy! Why are we even hiking in the rain?!”
“I hate this weather!”
“This is torture…”
Following one of the customary day-long hikes underneath the baking sun, we arrived at a village located in the middle of nowhere one evening. After dinner, I went outside the building and gazed up at a “morose” sky, noticing heavy clouds incessantly blown by the blustery wind, like moving curtains, obscuring the enlightening moon. Seeing everyone starting to depart from eatery to residence, I hastened my pace.
“There’s a bug on my bed! There’s another one down on the floor!”, recoiled my still-awake roommate as I was stretched out on the cramped bed still trying to fall asleep.
Finally, I was slumbering. Then again, without prior notice, a few hours later came a curt, “Wake up!” My roommates, who were playing video games throughout the brevity of my sleep, started dressing themselves in their heavy cotton-padded rain jackets and pants.
“What’s happening? It’s dark and raining outside. … Why are we waking up?”, I questioned bafflingly, while glaring cursorily between them and the window. Checking my watch, I realised that it was dark because it was 2 o’clock in the morning.
Despite my bewildered state, watching my roommates expeditiously dressing in their rain gear promptly impelled me to stay present and disregard the weather. All appropriately dressed, we scurried downstairs and to breakfast amid the inclement gloom. Soon, eating over and done with, we queued to exit the back door and proceed with our hike.
At first, I could barely see my surroundings, not even the people in front of me. I turned on my camping headlamp, as did everyone. Under its brilliance, I could but only see a small part of the precipitous and rock-strewn path in front of me, accompanied by the misgiving sensations of opaque and unfamiliar surroundings.
By this point, the deluge and tropical-rainforest-level humidity had soaked through my rain gear. The hiking head wrap on my neck engulfed by the rain-gear hoodie was drenched with sweat after stoically walking ad infinitum without knowing time had passed.
We soldiered gingerly on with our hiking sticks, apprehensive of tripping, slipping, slowing others down or falling behind ourselves. When seeing everyone resolutely moving forward in the wilderness without rest before sunrise, who dares to stop?
A while later, we ascended a long way on an even tighter path; stacked slick rocks to our side. And in this weather, one can well imagine how many people up ahead were complaining.
Yet, those behind me relentlessly hiked in silence without grievance, despite the arduous, grueling trek. Unconsciously, the hours passed, then came the morning mist, filtered by the hazy illumination of headlamps. At last, we saw the sunrise upon our destination.
A friend hiking behind me said, “We just finished hours of hiking in the dark in that rain! It was such a challenging and unforgettable experience! So surreal! Even though it was strenuous and I’m absolutely sodden at the moment, I would be so remorseful if I had never hiked that trail in my life! Now I feel content”.
To an extent, people discourage themselves by saying, “It’s raining today. … It’s going to be just another mediocre day”, or, “This overcast, sullen day is making me melancholic”. However, remember the apartment building? Despite the “gloomy” weather, there was both a family upstairs bickering and a lady downstairs delighting in playing the accordion.
Knowing that weather does not define our mood, the more optimistic and motivated might think, “I am so fortunate to be alive, so I will fully experience every day and live to my potential regardless of my environment”.
One day on Earth passes swiftly no matter our emotions. Whether we let it pass with gratitude or despondence is simply a choice.
