Oct 214 min read

Facing the Weather

October 20, 2024

It’s fall in Piacenza, and we have rain that competes with Seattle's. I love the rain! I love walking outside in the morning, popping my umbrella open, and taking a breath of fresh air that smells like home. It makes me miss pumpkin patches in Snohomish and football games in Pullman and walks along the river to my favorite coffee shops in Bend. But rain also makes me lazy beyond measure. My screentime has been embarrassingly high, I don’t leave the house when I can avoid it, and I’m exceedingly anxious about all the things I continue procrastinating doing. Thankfully, it’s only rainy for a season. And seasons pass… right?

A week ago, a dear family friend was put on hospice. My heart is broken for him and his family. They spent this week in the hospital, waiting for God to take him home, and passed away this morning. He was such an amazing man, father, coach, and teacher, and he lived such a full life. It is devastating, and it’s such a reminder that nothing is promised; every day is a gift. It’s a gift to be able to wake up and move your body; it’s a gift to hug your family, or to share a meal with friends; it’s a gift to read another book, watch another movie, listen to another song; it’s a gift to be alive!

There is a season for everything, and each season is important. We can’t sit idly while waiting for the next one. We have to make the most of each season we are in.

It was kind of a dreary and melancholy week, but overall, it was a good one. The sky seemed like it was falling. The rain rarely let up. Some days it would slow down, and the sun would peak out for a moment. Some days thunder rolled and lightning cracked and the wind flipped umbrellas inside out.

Some days I took advantage of the weather by going on a run when there was a break in the clouds, or when I wanted to feel the rain on my skin. It’s nice running after taking a long break from it. Turning on a podcast, lacing up my shoes, and “hitting the pavement” was the highlight of my day every time I got up and did it. And I feel like it motivated me to do other things I’ve been putting off which is a huge win.

Some days I took advantage of the weather by snuggling in with a bottomless cup of tea and a good book or autumn-y movie or YouTube playlist of highlights from Dancing with the Stars (I cried watching a few dances from tribute week). My apartment is perfect for cozy fall days, my only qualms are that it’s drafty, mosquitoes and moths have invaded it, and a new neighbor moved in who is a literal opera singer. But I digress.

Some days, the weather forced friends and I to take shelter in nearby places. One day it was in a Sicilian bakery so we got cannoli. Score!!

Some days, despite the weather, I ventured out to meet up with friends (boots on feet and umbrella in hand). On Thursday I went out to dinner with my friends Alex and Ruby. We had some of the best rigatoni ever, along with lamb chops, cheesecake, and a delicious bottle of local wine. We figured we need to go out to dinner more often… we live in Italy after all! Last night, the three of us braved the weather again and went out for a couple drinks with our friends Marte, Kelly, and Sem. We went to this cool place that felt like a speakeasy, where an old man in a sailor cap was DJing blues hits. We played an intense game of scrabble, which was interesting since the letters J, K, W, X, and Y aren’t in the Italian alphabet, then we met a couple of local guys who tried to teach us a wild card game. Apparently, every town in Italy has their own kind of playing cards? There are four suits (coins, swords, logs, and cups) and seven cards (three face cards: the knight, the king, and one I don’t remember; and then six number cards). In the game they tried to teach us, the knight beats the face card I can’t recall, the king beats the knight, the three beats the king (they don’t know why either), and the ace beats all. It was one of the most random nights I’ve had in the past year, and also one of the best.

I guess that this week as a whole was a reminder that even though sometimes it’s hard, we’ve got to face the rain. There’s a season for everything, and it’s important to embrace whatever one you’re in. I don’t want to think back on this season of life and regret all the times I didn’t say yes to dinner with friends or a walk on the trail or a weekend trip or a morning at the market. I don’t want to come to the end of my life and find that my 4 hours a day of screen time totaled to 15 whole years of being on my phone (if you live to be 90, that’s the math!!) There are so many people to meet and books to read and games to play and things to learn and places to visit and differences to make! So, let’s not sit idly, waiting for whatever is next. Let’s live, and live fully.