Rain Days...

It's raining.

Rainy days at Camp Hitaga were sort of a downer. There was no swimming, canoeing, horse back riding or archery in the rain. The paths were often a slick, muddy trek. We often had the flag ceremony in the rain, but that was fairly miserable as we stood there dripping with our plastic ponchos just waiting for it to be over so we could get to the dining hall. Yet, in the dining hall we'd eat - as usual - and of course - yes - we'd sing about the rain. Usually it was something like: BRRR it's a cold day, BRRR it's a chilly day, ain't no heat in this cold camp - BRRR -- SHHH - and we'd repeat it again and again around the dining hall. Sometimes the counselors would break out into a rousing rendition of "Singing in the Rain." We campers would at first look at them as if they were a bit - well, you know - odd. Much later I apprehended why they did this and followed suit.

The flora, however, seemed to love the precipitation and turned a brilliant, verdant emerald green in the midst of the rain and the mosquitoes just loved, I mean LOVED this.

Campers did not.

Still, we found things to do. Camp Crafts were a big draw. So was the Nature Center. And then there was our tent. We could always return to our bunks and write letters home, read, nap or ponder our existence. I think this was an instrumental foundation that oriented me to my world. If it rains, you do what you do on rain days. It was an exercise in contentment.

So, I have made a commitment to ride my bike every day of my continuing education independent study (I want to ride in Manhattan, KS, too). Right when I was leaving the house at around 7 pm, it started to spit a bit. Determined, I hopped into my car with the stuff I wanted to return to Crafts Direct. I parked my car near in a lot at the Halenbeck Hill and took off down the Beaver Island Trail. Off I went down 33rd, cutting back up to 22nd (huff, huff) and onward to my intended destination. It drizzled and dripped on me along the way.

Later, I went to get grocery supplies for a lunch that Jack and I are hosting at our home on Friday. It was really raining. I watched others run into the store. Some were covered in their rain gear. I reveled in the feeling. "What's a little water?" I thought, "It feels good!"

It's funny. Right now the wireless internet is misbehaving. It doesn't love the rain - slows the signal down and the lights on the modem chase each other. Rain. It slows us all down; causes us to think about what we should wear; where we can go and how we can get there. Rain days center us on the activities that we don't usually do outdoors; direct our minds to reading, nature, crafts and what it means that we are living on this little, spinning blue planet.

Rain. Ponder the last time you intentionally went outside and walked in the warm spring showers or luxuriated in a drenching summer downpour. Consider just going out there...immerse yourself in the water. Let is cascade over your brow and flow down your face as you lift your head toward the sky.

To paraphrase George Harrison:

Here comes the rain, here comes the rain --- and I say, it's all right...

It's all right.