A consistent drumbeat of rain has been my companion this gloomy Monday morning as I sit here catching up on my lists and projects. The drainpipe out my window has the hollow pitter-patter of rainwater splattering as it hits the ground below. It’s a good day to put a few logs in the fireplace, rustle up a pot of steaming hot Chili and cornbread for dinner and hunker in for the day.
Rainy Days and Mondays always get me down.
Isn’t that what Karen Carpenter taught us back in 1971? A gloomy rainy Monday is a good enough reason to call in the depression? I don’t usually have that reaction. A good rainy Monday might feel like a slower more relaxed start, or I might not feel like hitting the ground running at warp speed but a little rain doesn’t usually have the power to make me want to throw the covers back over my head. What’s funny is that all these years later a good rainy Monday will get me thinking about that song. It was one of my favorites back then, all the way back then when I was eleven and really believed that a rainy Monday was as good a reason as any other to throw in the towel and give in to the gloomy attitude that was always hovering just one raincloud over my pre-teen head. Everything seemed like a near-tragedy back then. Now I look at the words and I wonder what in the world I was thinking to listen to that garbage.
RAINY DAYS AND MONDAYS
Talkin’ to myself and feelin’ old
Sometimes I’d like to quit
Nothing ever seems to fit
Hangin’ around
Nothing to do but frown
Rainy Days and Mondays always get me down.
What I’ve got they used to call the blues
Nothin’ is really wrong
Feelin’ like I don’t belong
Walkin’ around
Some kind of lonely clown
Rainy Days and Mondays always get me down.
Funny but it seems I always wind up here with you
Nice to know somebody loves me
Funny but it seems that it’s the only thing to do
Run and find the one who loves me.
What I feel has come and gone before
No need to talk it out
We know what it’s all about
Hangin’ around
Nothing to do but frown
Rainy Days and Mondays always get me down.
Then I remember. There are days that people…and I am one of them, really do feel like that once in awhile. There are some people that feel like that most of the time. There are a few people that feel like that ALL of the time.
Feeling like they want to quit, feeling like nothing fits. Feeling like they don’t belong, some kind of lonely clown, hangin’ around, with nothing to do but frown…
Are we there to encourage them? Are we going to be the ones they come running to for a little encouragement? The one they will run to, to find the one who loves them?
OR do we get impatient. Do we tell them to snap out of it, this won’t last, it’s only Monday, the sun will come out tomorrow…bet your bottom dollar…
Do we listen or do we deflect?
Are we a haven in their storm? A beacon? A light?
I have to be careful. Because sometimes in my earnest attempt at being positive and hopeful, I push so hard at the darkness that I risk pushing away the person feeling consumed with the darkness. They can’t separate themselves enough from it to realize that I’m not pushing THEM away. I don’t want to do that. I want to encourage, love, comfort, be that haven from the rain that they so desperately need.
I try to be aware. But it’s tricky. On rainy Mondays, maybe because of that silly song, I am more aware. It reminds me to be thoughtful. It reminds me that some people are feeling like that and I need to be sensitive and alert. Not just blundering through with my Pollyanna attitudes and platitudes expecting that everyone else is having a good day too.
When I say “How’s your day?” I mean it…I’m trying to look carefully and with sensitivity to what’s going on. And yes…I should be doing this on sunny days too. It’s a good reminder for every day.
But that Karen…she belted out a message that is going to stick with me forever…and somehow Rainy Days and Mondays always get me…
More Aware.
