“This is going to burn off soon…”

I was very fortunate to spend every summer of my childhood at a family vacation home in the beach town of Ventnor, New Jersey.

Nothing ruins a beach day more than when it’s cloudy and overcast outside.

When that would happen, we would walk outside with my father — who had been a lieutenant in the United States Navy earlier in his life – and he would look up at the sky, scan around a little bit, and with great confidence, he would say, “This is going to burn off soon.”

It would fill us with optimism!

And, of course, he was always right. It would always burn off, and there’d be a sunny day after that.

I think that reflected a fundamental optimism he had about life in general; that when there are problems or obstacles or dark clouds in the way, eventually they will move out of the way, and there will be sun after that.

And although my father passed away in 2013, when things are going sideways in my own life or there are dark clouds above, I imagine him looking up at the sky and with that great confidence saying, “This is going to burn off soon.”

I hope if there’s anything blocking the sun in your life, you will also think about the words of that old Navy man.

Because he was always right.