Yesterday it was drizzly, sleepy, and grey outside. So many days, I find that my mood correlates with the weather. I can’t help it! If the sun is out and birds are singing, I find myself doing a mazurka down the sidewalk. If the wind is sharp and air is crisp, I’m active and bright to match. But if the weather is gloomy… I’m melancholy too.
I’ve gotten into the habit of looking at happy photos and reading through journals when I’m feeling glum. Yesterday brought me back to Greece. Corfu to be exact. Because as we like to say, “Every day on Corfu is the best day of your life.” I stumbled upon the following photo. It was taken on a rainy, gloomy day. Theoretically, it could have been spent indoors reading and writing, lamenting the fact that we weren’t at the beach. But the universe had something else in store for us.
My third or fourth night in Greece, we met another American at our friend’s bar, Robin’s Nest. He was cycling across Greece, but had blown out a tire in an accident and was stuck until he could rent a car and find a bike shop that could fix it. Since he had the car for the entire day, we made plans with him to go exploring.
Exploring. What does that even mean? Well, in Greece it means being mercilessly dragged out of bed by your cousin and piling 5 people deep in a crazy, bright green Fiat.
We set out with no specific destination, and only a vague idea of which village to head towards. We saw gypsy camps, and drove through narrow, winding roads. Olive trees were scattered about with nets underneath to collect the olives (they don’t pick them). Eventually we stumbled upon an old, one-room church and decided this was a good place for an adventure to begin. There were two Greek men sitting outside of the church, and while they didn’t have a key to show us inside, they were able to tell us how to get to the seashore.
So three Americans, a chick from Zimbabwe, and a gay Hungarian took off in Toms and flip flops (my cousin was the only one in real shoes) down an old path. Eventually it narrowed and became slightly more rocky, and we faced one of the most spectacular views I’ve ever seen. I’m really not sure I’ve seen anything more beautiful. The water was the most amazing shades of blue and green, massive waves crashing into the side of a mountain.
I probably took 400 photos that day. A day that could have been lazy, boring and miserable ending up becoming one of the most beautiful days I can remember. I got to thinking about how that concept can be applied to various areas of life. There are times that we encounter less than desirable people and circumstances. But life is just a journey, right? We are in charge of how we react to different experiences. We can either give negativity power over our lives, or allow it to evolve into something wonderful and beautiful.
MEGAN BETTIS 