And So It Rained.....

Finally, after being here more than a month, I get to watch a rain storm come in and blow out. The hospital is dripping. My window has rivulets. I'm watching the drops pelleting the side casing of my window. Drip, then drop forming until another burst of drip. Like the drops in my IV pump coming down from the bag only better. The sky got dark. The rain came in and I could almost feel the cool relief from the seventh floor. Short lived. Blue sky patches showing half an hour later.

Paddling taught me to love the rain. I love watching the response of water surface to rain. When the rain starts slow, I enjoy sky water meeting surface water. There is jump-for-joy action as the drop is received and ripples happen. When rain comes in hard and fast, water gets beat down as if crushed by a whipping. I love watching the rain travel across the sky.

When the wind comes -- those glorious days when the wind comes and I'm fortunate enough to wake up to it, I get to be wind bound and stay in the tent all day, catching up in my journal, reading, extra sleep and looking at the map.

When it rained today in Seattle, for a moment I believed that I was in my tent looking out. Wind bound. What a great excuse for being right here.

If you ever hear a weather broadcaster on t.v. saying that it is a "miserable day out there, it is going to rain all day and you'll have to take your umbrella," turn him or her off and find another announcer. That one knows nothing at all about the remember-your-baptism, marvel of rain.