Where do you find your silver linings? Every cloud has one, or so the saying goes.

It’s almost like a law of nature. Events and actions and circumstances beyond our control might present themselves as either disastrous or miraculous, but hidden within is often a shadow or mirror image that tells a different story.

Sometimes the downsides to good fortune or the upsides of disaster are readily apparent. On other occasions, the counterintuitive result may take months, decades, years, or even lifetimes to become apparent.

When you’re zoomed all the way into the details of an unforeseen problem or an unexpected bonanza it can be hard to focus on anything other than the problem or the prize at hand.

Whereas when you telescope your vision all the way out to the biggest picture possible, things often take on an entirely different perspective.

Case in point: our current weather in California. For months, the news has been awash in tales of tragedy. We’ve seen rivers flooding, dams bursting, levees breaking, and snow so deep they can barely measure it.

There is no denying it, we’re having a heck of a year and the folks hit the hardest need help. But the fact remains that the news has a short memory and it’s been quite a while since we’ve had a winter like this out here on the West Coast.

Let’s look at this through the eyes of our fellow critters. After years of species-crushing drought, this wettest of winters is a welcome sigh of relief.

Every vernal pool in the Bay Area hills by my house is overflowing. Wild flowers and the native grasses are poised for a banner year. Our amphibian friends, the frogs and newts and salamanders have rarely had it this good!

All of this bodes well for the food chain above. The hawks and owls and coyotes will find an abundance of mice, gophers, and squirrels. The wildcats that my nearby canyon is named after will have plenty of good hunting to supply big families this year.

All in all, nature is dancing to the tune of falling rain, so let’s remember to look for the silver lining when the clouds are above!

Much love till next Monday!

M+

Mark Metz
Director of the Dance First Association
Publisher of Conscious Dancer Magazine