It's raining! Storming, actually. And this is wonderful. Not only does it fit my mood, but the weatherman says we need around eight inches of rain to pull us out of the drought. I just came in from swinging with Bella on the front porch.
The neighbor kid told her that God was crying everytime it rains. Her mother is a twisted bitter woman. So I've been explaining to her that rain is a good thing... cleansing, satisfying. I pointed out how all the flowers were standing up and the leaves were turned over, and how that is their way of opening their mouthes to the raindrops to drink. And I explained how the grass was getting brown because it's so thirsty, and now if the rain keeps coming down for a while, the grass will feel better and be all pretty and green again. Obviously I left out the real reason I'm happy about the rain is that I won't have to water the flowers this evening, and it gets me out of the much neglected yard work for one more day.
Someone commented that I shouldn't worry about what people think of the yard. It isn't that. It's me that it's driving crazy. But I've never really been one to care much what other people think about most things. Obviously I want to be accepted in life, but not at the cost of my own happiness.
I remember a friend I had in high school. Her name was Theresa. She was the sweetest girl. She worked so hard to fit in with everybody, every class. And for the most part, we all fit in great together. She was as much of a prissy prep as the rest of us, but she felt like she had to work at it.
Theresa was the first one of us to get her liscense. I remember piling into her car after school to cruise the town square like it was yesterday. (hush, David) It was a silver GrandAm... an almost new car. I would have been proud of it.
The reason I remember it so well is that it was every bit of 100F outside, and Theresa's air conditioner didn't work. But we had to "pretend" it did by cruising around with the windows up! We thought we'd die inside that hot car and no amount of reasoning would get her to let us roll down the windows even though it made no sense to cruise with them up! She would just say that everyone cruised with their windows down and the air on, but if we tried that, they'd be able to tell she didn't have air. I always wondered how... maybe the size of the beads of SWEAT rolling down our faces?!
Twenty minutes into it, and the rain has stopped. But the thunder is still rolling. My fingers are crossed. I'm happy to get any.. even a little. And I'm even happier that I'm no longer cruising the square in this weather with the windows up.
