Weather Report

by Rebecca Crichton

My father was obsessed with the weather years before there was a Weather Channel. He was the first person I knew who was committed to knowing what the weather was doing in different places—in particular, wherever my sister and I lived.

When I moved to Washington state, my father became especially focused on Seattle’s weather. For several years, he would ask about my local weather, and when I didn’t know, tell me what he had heard or read or seen about what was going on in the Puget Sound region. Sometimes I would have to step out on the porch to confirm his report. Eventually, my regular greeting became, “What’s my weather, Daddy?”

I admit that I am on the other end of the caring-about-the-weather spectrum, either my own or others’. Sometimes it means I don’t pay attention when people I know are experiencing storms, floods, or other acts of nature. I often need to apologize after the fact.

Many of us spend a lot of time worrying, complaining, and taking personally things that upset us that we can do nothing about. I am more in alignment with a young rabbi I met who was interning in a synagogue in Portland. He said he would consider himself successful if he could get his congregation to stop complaining about the weather. It made perfect sense to me.

I am aware that knowing what might be happening weather-wise in the next hours and days can be helpful for plans we make, events we look forward to, and ways to stay safe.

Recently, while a dear friend goes through a difficult time, I am monitoring my internal weather. I announced to a group of people in my Saturday morning coffee klatch that I was mainly overcast, with a chance of rain and some sunspots to look forward to. I declared that sitting and chatting with them qualified as a sunny moment.

Silly as it might seem, everybody knew just what I was talking about. It was easier than sharing the underlying story that precipitated these descriptions.

When the study of Chaos Theory began, hopes were high that it could explain large systems such as the weather or the stock market. As understanding increased, it became clear that while there was much to learn about Chaos and how it operates, it was not necessarily going to deliver those hoped-for results. Instead, it revealed that those systems were reliable but not predictable.

Thus, you could be pretty sure it would be warmer in the summer and colder in the winter, but that wouldn’t tell you how bad the storms might be or how high (or low) the temperatures would be. I have found that distinction between reliability and predictability helpful in my life. People who know me would describe me as reliable and dependable. The description would not necessarily include predictable.

Our bodies are weathervanes. They are our personal barometers. My sister’s body tells her when the weather is going to change. What it doesn’t tell her is in what way or when it’s going to do it. She just knows that change is coming.

Maybe all we can do is support and care about friends who are going through hard times. Their weather is bad and threatening to be worse. And, as is always the case, it will change. There will always be a new set of conditions that require adjustment and acceptance.

The better able we are to tune in and be attentive to our internal weather reports, the more able we will be to prepare for the inevitably changing conditions.