Warm Rain

Once again, the world changes....

Unbuckled, I sit beneath the street lamp, mesmerized by the patterns of raindrop shadows, rolling, racing across the dusty dash.

This rain has a soothing effect on my senses and my psyche. It's warm, nourishing, healing, in a way that biting winter rain is not. The icy drive of needles all around saps my strength, drains my creativity, makes me yearn for sleep and safety.

Today's rain, the same rain (the same rain? every droplet different, like every moment of ocean different, never the same rain, river, ocean, never) that sang me to sleep last night, touches my arms, my face, my hair like a wet mouth throwing kisses of benediction.

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It's rainbow weather, these days. The rain stops by midmorning, sun shining on cartoon clouds by midafternoon. The sky is a huge painting by an Impressionist artist, and I wish my vision were wide enough to encompass it all at once. I think of L., who stares at the sky even when it looks empty to me, and wonder about the wonder of everything.

A storm blows up suddenly, rumbling thunder shaking the house. Wind roars down the hill, rattling through bare branched bushes where tiny birds try to hide from sweep of rain. Drops spatter windows, falling thick and heavy as sun breaks from behind a cloud in the western sky.

Rainbow weather! Where is it? I race outdoors, heedless of dime sized droplets soaking my silk shirt. Ah, there! A perfect arc of clearly defined colors, embracing the lush backdrop of periwinkle sky. I look until the shiver of wind on my wet neck and scalp drives me indoors.

Worth the chill, ah, yes.