Generally speaking, I am an all sun, all the time kind of girl. But today’s rain seems just right. It feels like a wet permission slip to stay in bed (although I can’t). It feels like it’s washing me clean of the deep exhaustion and heavy emotion of the past few weeks of the graduation-a-thon.
When I think of rain, what most comes to my mind is being at the Cape, in the cute little cottage we rented, and nagging my mom, practically to death, to please go to Hyannis or Provincetown, so I would not perish of boredom. But while the rain left me cursing the sun for taking a vacation day, I was also a little bit in love with the smell of a watery day on the ocean. I adored the feeling of walking the shore as the rain and wind smacked my face, the wet sand crawled in between my toes, and the sheets pouring down from the sky tried to ruin my tan (as if). But that smell, oh man, that SMELL, I sometimes, SOMEHOW, can smell it in Brookline on a rainy day, and it brings me back to those summers, that beach, and the powerful memories of some of the very best and most important times of my life.
My flowers are happy. And I don’t have to water, a major “get out of jail free” card. I can give the dog shorter walks. I can skip out on my work out walk. But I’m just trying to make the best of it, because let’s face it, rain is just not my thing. But I’m grateful for it today. It seems ok. Like a good day to have it. Like a way to start again.
*the gratitude-a-thon 