Dancing through life, rain or shine

I had a meeting in Port Perry last week and the sun was shining, it was a pleasant drive and a productive meeting. My drive home was sunny with a few clouds, and I had my favourite music playing. Driving by myself I was focused on my thoughts of the day. Suddenly, I was startled by a noise I could not place at first. And by the time I had established that it was pouring rain, it had stopped. Looking in my rear-view mirror I could see the wet band of highway that was only about two car lengths wide. It all happened so fast, I jumped at the noise that just sounded like the car being pounded by an unknown force. I jumped when I heard it and then laughed right out loud when I realized it was rain. Rain is not abnormal, but I was not expecting it as I was driving in sunshine, nor I had I ever encountered such a short span of weather. My frame of reference for rain on the car involves clouds blocking the sun, a slow start that builds up to a harder rain and a longer expanse of time where I am driving in rain. This was so unusual. All happening in an instant, and was so jarring and bizarre, it all made me laugh out loud. The timeless truth we all face is that we really are not in control of what happens to us. I was in control of the music selection, in how I was conducting myself on the sunny drive, I was choosing my thoughts and having a pleasant drive. I could not choose or even guess that I would be interrupted by the weirdest rain shower I have experienced. I could not initially control my response which was one of surprise. And while I did not choose to start laughing really, as it all settled in my brain as an event that I was working to understand, continuing to laugh and muse about how caught off guard I was by something as usual as a rain shower, these things were all now back in my control. Stuff happens, a sunny day can still drop some rain, people can let us down, there can be setbacks we did not see coming. The choice we have is really just how we react, or continue to react, what part we reflect on, what we might change given this event and how we choose to remember it. So I chose to laugh, not even in the rain as it was behind me, but to laugh at the rain and myself.