In the Rain

Snow has been pervading these past few days as winter leaves behind a stamp of her possession of this Canadian land.

And a gloomy, unsatisfied, drifting feeling has accompanied that slowly trickling icing-powder-fine snow until it takes work to move beyond just existing, to really living.

But today.... today, it Rained. And Rain deserves to be capitalized. There's just something so satisfying in Rain. I heard it all the time when I was growing up, for half of the time, it's Rainy season over there, which means days of endless rain, of yelling across the supper table because of Rain pounding on a tin roof, of dressing in bathing suits and having mud fights, of making slip and slides underneath our clotheslines, and dancing around in the pure pleasure of Rain.

Now, it goes without saying that I can't do any of this anymore, at least.... I probably shouldn't. But there's still something satisfying about Rain: in hearing it, in walking while rivulets make paths down your jacket, in knowing that the world is being washed clean.

That very cleanness has been what has been missing these past few days. Piles of procrastination, listlessness, unfulfilled ambitions, and getting back to the school grind have smudged and begrimed the windows of my everyday view.

But this Rain, it brings something new. It brings hope, it brings forgiveness, it brings starting anew.

And life is so GOOD when it Rains.

When you catch yourself hugging a certain little Munchkin who is wearing a bright yellow hat with a pink flower in the middle of a sidewalk.... surrounded by Rain.

When you get home and eat spaghetti and listen to *a symphony orchestra from Congo* (which really has nothing to do with Rain, except it brings the same joy as Rain does).

When He calls you through the simplicity that Rain holds as an illustration, to let Him wash way the things you've been holding against others, Him, and yourself the past few days.

When everything's washed away, and your focus sharpens and you put things into the proper perspective and suddenly the fears diminish and the next few days don't seem as hectic, and decisions are, okay, still as hard to make, but you know how to make them...

Today... it Rained.