Weather is kind of a big deal, though it’s actually trivial in almost every major life decision. Weather happens in the background and is never a factor when we pick schools or choose life partners or decide on quitting a job. Weather offers a mere backdrop to our daily lives, and it never gets registered in our longterm memory. Weather starts a lot of conversations, fills in uncomfortable silences, and earns an unfortunate notoriety as a pathetic small talk last resort. It is visible, but also kind of not. At any point in the day we can look outside and observe the weather; or we are otherwise informed by the little icons of suns and clouds and blue streaks of rains on the weather forecast segment on TV (now adapted to a smooth-looking but void-of-human-presence phone app interface). For the most part though, weather holds so little of our attention except for the transient moments when it pops up in our mind, when the weather forecast comes into focus all of a sudden, when we turn to it for a desperate small talk attempt, or other random instances like those. Still, I find weather so incredibly important.
Living in a place where “bad weather” has become a signature of your city is one reason why you might find your life perpetually revolving around weather. “Bad” is of course subjective. There are those who adore the gloom, the wet, the slush. Some tolerate quite a wide array of weather conditions while others start whining when the temperature exceeds beyond their 4-Celsius-degree range of usual comfort. I myself have grown to appreciate certain weather conditions more than the rest, and in my daily life I sort of form the habit of talking about the weather (it being good, bad, or something in between), not out of fear of a dreadful silence in dialogues, but just out of a genuine attunement. It is an ever-present topic when I interact with the people in my vicinity, who seem to share the same awareness and desire to speak of what goes on in the sky. Being in “Raincouver” (legitimately a nickname for the city, just to illustrate how big of a deal the weather is here), talking about weather conditions isn’t an inconsequential distraction but our collective way of life, a shared ode to something that dictates our decisions way more than we realize.
I start off each day with a temp check and a close monitoring of how likely it will rain for every hour of the day. A forecast of a sunny or semi-sunny weather essentially shifts my plans to things other than being glued to my chair, indoors, for the whole day. I could venture outside and do all my errands, go for a walk or run, or take some time to relax in the warmth of the sun (if the temperature isn’t too low for my comfort). Rainy or cold weather means social plans are sometimes canceled, errands get pushed aside, and my body “enjoys” a day of lethargy with no more movement than shuffling back and forth between my room and the kitchen. Usually by the end of a rainy, gloomy day, not only my physical shape but also my mental headspace reach a point of stagnancy that basically renders the preceding 24 hours pointless and better off forgotten. Don’t get me wrong, the rain/gloom isn’t inherently unenjoyable, and obviously life doesn’t have to be put on hold when the weather turns rainy or gloomy (which probably happens 2/3 of the time in this city). The problem here is my unshakable tendency to associate the weather with how I use my time, mind, and body on a daily basis. I don’t make my major life decisions informed by the weather at any instant, but I might as well be subconsciously letting my life trajectory be geared by an accumulation of weather conditions from day to day. And it’s not even whatever “loss of productivity” bullshit out there I’m worrying about. It’s more the ramifications on my mental and physical state of being, my social life, and my general appreciation of all the things that happen outside my windows.
I have at multiple times declared to my friends here that I could imagine myself settling down in Vancouver ONLY if there were no constant rain (remember, 2/3 of the year!). In other places, it would be the heavy snow, the unbearable humidity, the extreme heat, or any of the other weather elements which I could identify a repugnance in. “Good weather” exists in some faraway land, and probably comes with an extremely high price tag for housing and living costs. In other words, there are always reasons to not be happy about the environment one is in, whether it’s the natural burdens or the artificial costs. Coming to terms with how the weather is significant in my life without surrendering too much of my own agency in deciding my daily activities to it could be a way to curb that dissatisfaction that would otherwise consume my wellbeing and bury it under a blanket of clouds and gloom, literally and metaphorically. It’s also already quite a privilege to entertain the option of moving elsewhere for “good weather”, and I wouldn’t deny that aspect of my reflections on all these cities I could potentially relocate to. In the end, the point is that I’m probably neglecting a lot of the “good stuff” that can occur in “bad weather” whenever I get fixated on the notion that only “good weather” is congruous with a good life.
As I brace myself for “Junuary” and yet even more rain in this so-called “spring-to-summer transition” (it started in March and is still not over, folks), I am humbled by the thought that the weather really isn’t against me or anyone who has a distaste for whatever emerging out of the sky on any one particular day. Weather can and will continue to take up a big part of my mind, and I truly enjoy these moments of it entering my consciousness. I would also be even more glad if I could “team up” with the weather and make the most out of whatever circumstances granted. Making peace with external conditions and innovating the concept of “fun” in life are possibly two components that will bring me immediate fulfillment as I slowly immerse into whichever climate my fortunate self gets to be in.