rain

It's raining.  Finally.  It hasn't rained (like seriously rained) in at least three weeks.  We so needed this.  St. Louis has been a hot, humid sauna for the last half of June and the better part of July.  Don't ask me how it's been so humid, even when there's been no precipitation.  It's just the load we come with as a city.  Rain or no rain, it's humid all. the. time.

But today, there's relief.  And it smells divine.

I'm sitting on my screened-in porch with the screens open of course, enjoying the cooler temps, the cloudy skies, the steady downpour, and the mist floating in alongside a glass of iced coffee.  Pure bliss.

And it makes me think about rain... metaphorically, of course.

"When it rains, it pours...," a saying that alludes to good times.  We haven't had good times recently.  As a city, we've been in drought.  As a country, we are economically dry right now.  And me?  Well, it's been a hard summer.  Dry economically just like everyone else and emotional, to put it lightly... just like the St. Louis weather -- hot and humid.  But the rain gives me hope... like the long-awaited release of something you've been patiently hoping for.

It makes me think back to other seasons in my life when it rained all the time and drove me insane.  I remember the monsoons that inevitably hit the campus of the University of Missouri at the most inopportune times.  I'm positive there was a semester it rained every time I walked across campus from art history to Dr. Minturn's Rhythmic Analysis class.  Every. single. time.  And I think it continued the following fall when walking from German to 20th Century Music Theory.  For like 8 weeks straight, it rained every Tuesday and Thursday.  I got so sick of having shoes and jeans that were sopping wet, soaked through all the way to the sock.  Not to mention wet textbooks, scores, and homework... times when it rained so much, I might as well have dumped my coffee inside my backpack.

And now, I couldn't be happier for it.

It reminds me of times in life when there's so much rain... too much rain.  Too much to do, too much on your plate, too much to handle, too many things clamoring for your attention.  You grow weary of being poured on every time you turn around... you no longer appreciate the rain and it becomes a burden to you instead.  And then there are times like now when you long for nothing more than a midday shower.

I can't wait for the teaching semester to start, to see my students and their families again, to accompany on a regular basis at Lutheran High.  The lack of diversion lately has really forced me to focus on the issues at hand and I can't wait for my sabbatical (which is quickly becoming less like a sabbatical and more like unemployment) to terminate in the beginning of the fall semester.  Things have been so out of whack lately.  But I guess that's how life is sometimes...

It's just ironic to think about, that's all... but today the rain is far from being a burden.  Today it gives me hope.