Rain

Oh, it’s been a long, hot summer but it’s coming to an end.  Last night we thought we heard rain and went out to the balcony to look and it was only a high wind, blowing the leaves along with enough force that they actually made scratchy little pitter-pattering noises on the sidewalk.  We discussed the weather and the changing of the seasons, about how it’s time for a change, about how pleasant it is to live in a place that has seasons, about global warming and the need to clean the carbon out of the air vs. the economic needs of people in developing countries, where the trucks still pour great billows of black smoke up into the air through a smokestack as they rumble and grunt down the road, and before you know it it was raining after all.

This morning I got up to take the kids to school and the water was pouring fiercely out of the sky, like the water was intent on invading the earth, ravishing the lawns and the gardens.  The only umbrella we had between the three of us was one little girl’s umbrella, almost like a toy umbrella, with a lady bug pattern and two superfluous and totally decorative wings.  So, we ran to the Metro, dodging puddles all the way (except for Isabel, with her rubber boots and her ladybug umbrella, who thought the whole thing was very funny).  It felt good to have a run through the rain.

By the time we got to their school it had stopped but it’s been off-again, on-again since then, all day.  I like the rain.  I like it when it’s pouring down and I like it when it’s soft and misty, drops hovering in the air more than dropping through it, like it was when I picked the kids up from school.  I like the way it breaks the tension in the air and I like the way it sweeps the sidewalks clean.  I like the way it makes the flowers brighter and leaves golden sparkles in the grass.  I like rainbows.

So, although the world may have had a shit day today, with death and desperation across the earth, it was pretty nice here in Prague.