Pure Delight

I write about it every year. I marvel at the contrast of it all. I bask in its glory. I pray that it will last and last and last.

That's right. It's raining. It's the monsoon.

I absolutely love the monsoon season. I think despite the fact that I am a Detroit-native, that I may be a true Oregonian at heart. The sound, the smell, the feeling of the rain makes me calm inside. Makes my heart happy. Makes my skin cool and refreshed. Makes my hair frizzy...

Today the kids played in the rain for about an hour. They were like drowned rats afterward, but quickly warmed up in their towels, then their jammies, then their naptime beds. I sat with my cup of chocolate soy latte and the newspaper, then a journal, listening to them play, and listening to that delightfully gentle pitter pat of the rain drops on the roof. Who needs a massage when you can close your eyes and let the falling rain relax every muscle in your body.

The flooding has begun... the clean clothes on the exposed clothesline are not drying... everything feels damp... the walls have begun their yearly soak through from the outside eventually ruining every surface of paint... Mud had tracked its way intrusively throughout the entire house... the drains are not draining properly... the doors are more like a sieve causing water to burst its way from the kitchen along the marble floor into the dining room and into our storage area. But its worth it all.

Windshield wipers wiping. Puddles splashing. Children wearing raincoats.

Umbrellas up. Blue tarpaulins for sale. Swirling cyclones of water covering the unseen danger of open manholes waiting to swallow their next victim.

Will it flood? Do I need to store up food and water? Will we make it to school on time? Will this flight ever leave?

I love these questions! They can only be asked once a year.

It is monsoon. I am delighted. Let it rain, let it rain.

~lk