The weather was gorgeous today at South Ponte Vedra Beach. As I walked along the water line I reflected on the difference between today and the blustery, rainy and cold day earlier this week. Between the two days were some good weather days and some bad weather days. But at South Ponte Vedra Beach this week, as at every other beach in the world, there was at least one constant: every day, good weather or bad weather, the tide rose. And every day, good weather or bad weather, the tide ebbed. Regardless of the weather, the tide moves on.

It occurred to me that I was witnessing several lessons for those days when there seems to be a lot of bad weather in my life. The first lesson is that I could not have judged today to be a gorgeous day unless I had something to compare it to. Hot would be impossible without cold. There could not be an up without a down, an inside without an outside. When you think about it, darkness actually makes daylight possible.

The second lesson is that, like the tide, I need to move on, certain in the knowledge that the bad weather will soon be replaced with a gorgeous, sunny day. The ancient writer of Ecclesiastes told us that there is a season for everything, and we know that the cold, dark days of Winter are always followed by the warm, bright days of Spring.