Be the Mosquito

Have you ever felt bogged down, trapped, and hopeless?

Today was that day for me. I was on my way back home today after a few days out of town, and boy was I was feeling stuck. Lately, it seems like I can’t help but worry about all of the scary things looming over me: the lack of a place to live after the summer (and more precisely, the lack of money to pay for a decent place to live), not being able to return to the university I’d attended for the past few years (& more precisely, the loans I feared I’d have to take out to continue schooling), stress from searching seemingly endlessly for a job (which could provide the money for these other worries), and a rag tag group of countless other little doubts and despairs.

Needless to say, with a mind buzzing this erratically, my radar was not necessarily up for catching a lesson, but a quirky lesson found me nonetheless, courtesy of National Public Radio. If you’re anything like me and have ever had “one of those days” where nothing seems to be panning out, when all of the fear, fighting, doubting, and despair kicks in,  you will resonate with this funny but powerful life lesson taught by none other than a mosquito.

“Imagine how tough life would be if raindrops weighed 3 tons apiece as they fell out of the sky at 20 mph,”

the story went.  “That’s how raindrops look to a mosquito, yet a raindrop weighing 50 times more than one can hit the insect and the mosquito will survive.”

The voice on the radio went on to detail an experiment that explains how mosquitoes survive torrential donwpours, and this is where the lesson lies. They hop ON the raindrop and ride it out. Rather than resisting the downpour, they jump headfirst toward that raindrop and go with the flow. Then, when the wind has caught their delicate little wings, they’re able to fly off, unharmed by what could have been a deadly collision.

What downpours are you resisting, fighting, or running from?

The amazing thing is, once I accepted what was happening to me, and decided to go with it rather than fight it, things started happening. Seriously, less than 24 hours later and my seemingly major problems were completely dissolved. Why don’t we take note from the mosquito instead, and gather ourselves, hop on that raindrop, and let go of what we perceive as an impossible situation?

What happens when we let go of how hopeless our situation is, or how we could never survive the downpour, and simply be in this moment, accepting what is and trusting that we will be guided? After all, isn’t life about the journey?

How will you ride your raindrop?

If you enjoyed this article & gained some insight, or want to tell me about the downpours you’ve raindropped (yes, I just invented a verb) out of in your life, leave a comment below!

Oh, and if you want to hear the original story, you can find it here.