{"id":8544,"date":"2023-07-30T18:53:00","date_gmt":"2023-07-30T18:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/?p=8544"},"modified":"2026-01-16T20:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T20:48:10","slug":"the-joy-of-rain-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/?p=8544","title":{"rendered":"The Joy of Rain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>July has been wet. I don&#8217;t mind. It means I don&#8217;t have to water the garden and I can save some money and some energy. With all the rain, of course, the garden is lush. It&#8217;s hard to imagine the barrenness of Winter with the sunny Rudbeckia in bloom.<\/p>\n<p>The rain has also kept me indoors and given me time to work on my daughter&#8217;s quilt. The more you add, the more you have to add to keep the balance and the symmetry. I have also forced myself to do a little cleaning and a little thinking.<\/p>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><a style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/rudbeckia20-201.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/rudbeckia20-201.jpg\" width=\"280\" height=\"320\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"512\" data-original-width=\"448\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>I always feel that the cosmos, given time, will show us the way. With all this rain, I have had plenty of time to contemplate. So much so, that I think that I have found my &#8220;way&#8221; and it is ironically called, &#8220;The Way.&#8221; I&#8217;m not sure how it came about, but I know I was looking for &#8220;something.&#8221; I need to have a focus for the next ten years or however long I am spared. I think it must have been a post on FB (Facebook) that sparked my interest. Yes, FB may be the new oracle. Whatever the source, I was reminded of the Camino de Santiago in Spain and how much I wanted to walk it. I saw the film &#8220;The Way&#8221; a number of years ago and was captivated. I had actually read about the pilgrimage several years before that and wanted to go. I couldn&#8217;t convince my husband, though.<\/p>\n<div class=\"separator\" style=\"clear: both; text-align: center;\"><a style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/rudebeckia120-201.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/rudebeckia120-201.jpg\" width=\"182\" height=\"269\" border=\"0\" data-original-height=\"269\" data-original-width=\"182\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p>This last week, however, I decided, one rainy day, to start training for the walk. I realized that I could walk 10kms a day and if I started in Sarria and walked the 100kms to Compostela, I could do the walk in 10 days. Of course, I would have to train and walk with a 10lb pack on my back, but I think I could manage that or have a service take my luggage for me. I won&#8217;t be packing much. At 79, it will not be a fashion show; it will be an endurance test.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, I have a lot to put in order before I leave. I will have to prepare the garden in the Fall for Spring. I will have to organize the dis-organized areas of the house. I will have to put money aside, read books, reconnect with a wonderful travel agent we use to use and of course walk, walk, walk.<\/p>\n<p>My Joy for the joy jar this week has to be the rain. It nourished the garden and fed my soul. I now need to begin my journey.<\/p>\n<p>Have a joyous week!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>July has been wet. I don&#8217;t mind. It means I don&#8217;t have to water the garden and I can save some money and some energy. With all the rain, of course, the garden is lush. It&#8217;s hard to imagine the barrenness of Winter with the sunny Rudbeckia in bloom. The rain has also kept me [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8545,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-joy","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8544"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12159,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8544\/revisions\/12159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}