It's Raining

Typical Montana summer day................

Today..................

I love the rain. I’m sure many of you would prefer sunny days all around, but while I enjoy a sunny day from time to time, it’s the rainy ones I remember most vividly. Rain visits my former part of the world rarely. Helena, Montana sees more blue sky days than Pheonix, AZ! Beautiful blue skies over green valleys, golden mountains, snow caked ridges. But the rain, the rain.

I remember rain on almost every fourth of July of my childhood. Running through the meadows full of water, while the parents stayed dry. As night fell, collected into the house, soaking and cold to watch the fathers try and light fire-crackers on the soaked deck.

I remember rain on those long summer days that my mom threw us out of the house to play. Rain or no, we were sent to the outdoors to discover the world. We found waterfalls at flat-rock, muddy ponds at our hide-out on the mountain, secret hiding places as Nia-Nuki, wrapped in ‘buffalo’ hides escaping the Blackfoot and calvary.

I remember running. Races in the rain seem somehow more appropriate. The passion of chasing heated and cooled by the clouds above.

I remember running. Hurt from failure, from spurned love, from lost love. The passion of the sky crying for and with me.

I sit and watch the rain from my perch inside the café. Done with work. Sitting and writing, and smiling. I love the rain.