After the Downpour 1

“Not all storms come to disrupt your life, some come to clear your path.”

-Unknown

It’s remarkable how the weather shapes our lives.

In Johannesburg, South Africa, where I grew up, summers were blazing hot and filled with some of the fiercest thunderstorms you’ve ever seen. Winters felt merciless. They were bitterly cold and so dry that the skin on my knuckles would chap. 

I would long for the warmth and comfort of the summer sun as I wholeheartedly wished away the hardship and nuisance of winter. 

The thing about the changing of the seasons though, where I grew up, is that they didn’t come without a storm. The summer storms were needed because they carried the rain that winter wearied for. Winter would seem unbearably endless until we noticed the little blossoms sprouting on the trees – a hopeful promise that everything was about to change. 

The days would get warmer and warmer and the skies would grow darker and darker with the looming of large, eerie clouds. As unnerving as they appeared, the first thunderstorm after winter, was special. We knew what was waiting on the other side of it; the beautifully distinct and relieving smell of the first rain being soaked into the gasping soil.

In the face of enormous, roaring thunder and lighting so powerful, you’d shudder as it cracked through the sky, we understood that the storm would run its course and eventually settle the drifting dust. 

I’ve noticed that some storms of life behave the same way.  

Our lives can be threatened by intimidating thunderstorms during dry and challenging times. Yet their purpose, once they’ve hit, was to bring something to your life, you might desperately need; clearer air and offer of refreshing change, perhaps?  

After giving birth to my daughter during the Covid-19 pandemic, I was hit by an intense and serious bout of Post-Natal Depression (PND) – a savage storm during an already difficult season as a first-time mum. 

I hated the side effects of medication and so I wanted to try to deal with things differently. I anchored myself in my faith and chose movement and understanding nutrition as a means to heal from PND. Over time, as I weathered the storm, I marvelled as it repositioned my life on a path I never thought was possible for myself and one that I am delighted to be learning on. 

Although experiencing PND has been one of the most threatening and painful storms of my life, I have gradually been refreshed with new insight, knowledge, skills and relationships as I explore personal health and wellness – a path that has been cleared for me as a result of a threatening mental health storm. 

I believe that some storms come into your life and they seem intolerable and while they are hard to endure, in due course, they drift away and settle the dust kicked up by old seasons. And instead of wreaking havoc, they leave you with a wonderful opportunity for something you never imagined. 

Could it be, that the storm you are be facing, might be clearing a path for you?