When I lived on the northwestern coast of the United States, I got used to watching the weather to see how the jet stream, the prevailing wind, was forming. Storms ride in its pattern.

I used to love the storms that would blow in along the Oregon coast. It was usually cold air coming down out of the Alaskan gulf, and it carried cold rain. You had to bundle up.

Not many people went swimming in the ocean there, because the water was so cold. Everyone drank coffee and ate stuff like clam chowder or chili.

The mountains with their big trees came right down to the beaches, and huge rock formations stood out in the water just beyond the surf, like giants wading into the sea.

You could walk the beaches and search for agates. Sometimes you could find a treasure that floated in from some distant place along the Pacific rim.

When I lived along the southeastern coast of the United States, I tried to watch the jet stream again, but I found it wasn?t actually the prevailing pattern that made the most impact.

Sure, if the jet dipped during winter, that meant we?d get a blast of frigid air, but it didn?t mean we?d get a storm. In North Carolina, you watch the prevailing winds that come up out of the Caribbean, and specifically out of the Gulf of Mexico.

There are no Giants wading into the sea, and the surf is actually much less aggressive, but thunderstorms sneak up on those not paying attention and soak in seconds or threaten with sudden and intense wind and lightning.

Nevertheless, the water is warm, the air is humid, hugging the body gently, and you can swim in the sea quite easily.

I think people try to watch various kinds of prevailing winds in order to scan ahead and take care of themselves in life.

What is the stock market doing? What?s the price of oil? What kind of mood is Mom in or will Dad be drinking tonight? We?re in the holiday season, and it brings its own kind of prevailing winds. Will storms ride on such currents? Will people feel cold and have to bundle up against the stress they carry? Will it be necessary to walk the beach alone and look for the simple pleasures, finding an agate here or a shell there?

Will it be possible to look up and wonder at the Giants wading into the sea or the mountains with their big trees coming down to the beach?

Or will sudden, violent, noisy, and scary storms flash all around people caught off guard while they wade together in the warmth of an otherwise inviting sea?

One cannot really live without encountering some set of prevailing winds. One cannot live well without learning how to see the beauty in the storm.

How do you learn the pattern of the prevailing winds so that you can get through a storm, even learn to appreciate the beauty in one, without getting struck by it?

Well, first, there are no guarantees. You might get struck anyway, but real living is risky. Would you rather hide away in a cave and never really live your life?

Second, people need to pay attention to what is going on around them, and to actually engage with it. You cannot really tell what a wind is like unless you feel it on your skin.

Some are dry and some are moist. You can?t see the pattern of the jet on the weather channel if you turn the television screen to black.

Although there is more to it than this, the starting place is this first step of allowing yourself to actually BE in the situation ? to begin to sense it.

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