The girls came over for junk food dinner and a chick flick (which was soon turned off so we could root for the Phils) tonight.
One of them came over a bit early; actually, I got back from the grocery store 2 seconds before she buzzed. She announced, as we both tugged off our rain boots, that it was an absolutely dreary day. She had no energy, everything was blah...life was as yucky as the weather outside.
"Nah," I grinned. "Good things happen on rainy days."
She grimaced, as if to say that she wished it were so.
But it is - and I'm not just saying that because my mother always told me that good things happen on rainy days. It has rained, without fail, every year on my birthday. It rained when my parents got married; it rained the night that I was born. It almost always rains on the first day of school. It rained tonight, and the Phillies won, 11-0.
Even putting superstition aside, rain is pretty awesome. We pray for it - and we have for bajillions of years. It makes grass grow, and fills lakes, and makes all kinds of other nature-y, circle-of-life things happen.
You have to know who you are, and be comfortable with it, when it rains. Rainy days are not exactly good hair days. They're the days when your commute takes longer, and people are stressed, and your homework might get a little soggy. They're the tough days, sometimes - but that's why they're good. They challenge us. They force us to realize what will matter 10 seconds from now and what will matter 10 years from now. A little rain? No big deal.
Rain brings us rainbows. It brings us peace. (Oh man, I love napping when raindrops are pitter-pattering on my window.) It brings us joy: when I was little, Mom would take me for walks during rain showers to wave hello to the earthworms that had crawled onto the sidewalk; I still look for them when it rains now. And there's puddle-jumping, too - rain gives even grown-ups an excuse to be silly.
So, yes, it was gray today. It was cold, and blustery, and damp. I wore 3 shirts and ridiculously high socks. I plodded across 14th street in my checkered rain boots, with my floral-print umbrella, hoping that my groceries wouldn't melt like the Wicked Witch of the West. But it was also a day full of accomplishment (homework, I will not miss you when I finally graduate) and friendship and laughter. It was a rainy evening full of girl talk and cookie dough and cozying up on the couch. Good things happened today.
Luckily, there's also a chance of showers tomorrow...
