Water can be a blessing and it can be a curse.  We can swim in the water, or we can drown in it.  Either way, we have to be careful of it.

For me, water has definitely been a blessing.  After all, my greatest relaxation comes from swimming and I love views of the lake.

Several months ago I went to get tarot cards read with my friend, Chelsea.  It’s been something fun that we just do to do, but I was so surprised by the experience.  I’m a believer in signs but not necessarily one to believe with my heart and soul in superstition.

The reader told me that God made water my blessing because it was something that should’ve taken my life many years ago. I had come to find out there happened to be an accident where I fell into the pool when I was much younger–so many years ago it would be impossible for me to remember.

So after a discussion on my love for swimming, the reader, who has strong values in Buddhism, told me that my blessing in life is water.  Next time I was near a huge body of water, I should just simply take it all in, appreciate what God has given me and maybe even use some of that water to bless myself.

Well as it turns out I spent last weekend on a beach for what is known as the Kairos retreat. It just so happened to be a wonderful coincidence that the retreat was held on a beach, where I was able to see God in the water and the people that surrounded me. I had the honor of being an adult leader who witnessed college students move past the hurts and obstacles in their lives and truly appreciate the amazing blessings God has given them.

Saturday night, the wind picked up and the skies were black and as we headed to the beach, I hit every puddle imaginable.  Not only were my sneakers soaked from  being on the beach earlier, but now my socks and sandals were drenched.  Then the rain erupted and I was saturated head to toe from the pouring rain.

At first I didn’t put two and two together, but as I headed back to the beach a couple minutes later, the rain stopped. I saw the black clouds only reveal a small patch of sky in the distance and the only white I could see was the huge waves created by the pummeling wind–wind so fierce, I nearly fell over; waves so big I thought I  was looking at a skyline in the distance.

But that’s when it hit me and I truly understood that God gave me water as my blessing.  He gave me the puddles to step in and get my sneakers temporarily soggy.  He gave me a huge storm that allowed my to appreciate the sun poking through the clouds on the ride home.  He gave me this huge beach and lake just to gaze at and think of all the endless and majestic possibilities of life.  A few drops of freezing cold rain stopped me in that moment to realize how truly I was being blessed in that moment, in that retreat.

It couldn’t have happened at a better time and place.  Where I revisited a phenomenal retreat that allowed me to put petty hardships to the side, find many silver linings through the obstacles in my life and just see the many and wonderful blessings God gave me just to give me.

So it hit me, with no rain, I certainly would have no gain.  I would have some storms to endure me, I wouldn’t have pools to relax me and I wouldn’t have views to validate me.  That is not only a small lesson a card reader happened to teach me, but also what this retreat has been able to captivate.

I hope everyone, especially my Kairos 46 family knows, that there is a result in everything God gives us, whether it be a rainstorm, or a sunny day at the beach: We have our blessings and we have our possibilities and they are as boundless as the drops of rain that fall from the sky.

“Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass…It’s about learning to dance in the rain.”

-Vivian Greene