Storms don’t last forever. That’s something everyone knows but when it comes to the storms happening inside us, we let them live forever, we give them a permanent, rent-free stay in our hearts our minds and souls.
We let it rain every time the sun is out because we got used to the rain. We got used to crying after we smile.
We shut ourselves off from the world because we think it might snow, we think the weather might change and we’re not prepared for it and we think staying home is better for us because at least we don’t have to wither the storm.
But something about letting yourself get soaked in the rain cleanses you, something about facing the winds as you keep on walking empowers you and something about facing the storm and making it home in one piece makes you feel safe and undefeated.
It lets you know that there is nothing you can’t handle, that you’re stronger than the storms if you choose to be. You can be calm in the middle of the storms because you know they’ll pass, you know that the sun eventually comes out, the rain stops and if you’re lucky, you’ll see a rainbow after a cloudy morning or a full moon after a terribly dark night.
And just like the storms we face in our lives, storms don’t always reach us, they don’t always destroy us, they don’t always rip us to pieces. We just learn to dance in the rain, to protect ourselves from the winds and to look for the rainbow after the storm is over.
And the more storms you live through, the less they scare you.
You’ll understand that storms are just part of nature, part of life and part of you. You’ll understand that even if you try to run away from storms, you can’t escape them. You’ll realize that storms are sent from above for a reason, they’re trying to tell you something, they’re trying to send you a loud message and every storm comes with a blessing, every storm destroys something to rebuild something else.
When you learn that storms can’t break you — you’ll learn how to be happy — even in a hurricane. 
Rania Naim is a poet and author of the new book All The Words I Should Have Said, available here.
