I was preoccupied. My mind leaped between worrying about the success of my new practice and the deathly ill young man in the ICU. I still hadn't gotten to that blog post I had been meaning to write. I was so far into the clouds that I barely noticed them rumble. The helmeted kids were ahead of us on their bikes, pedaling away. My wife and I had just rounded the corner of our leisurely walk. We were making the trip back home.
The crash above us was getting closer. My wife turned toward the menacing clouds on the horizon, and then shouted in the direction of the kids.
Run!
I instinctively put my hand to my pocket to protect the mobile phone and sprinted forward. As if on cue, the first rain drop plopped on my prematurely balding scalp. The avalanche of water came quickly. We ran past the kids who were giggling and pumping their legs for maximal speed. My shirt clung to my chest, waterlogged.
The torrent engulfed us. The tension between my shoulders began to relax, and all the muscles of my body gave a collective sigh. I raised my head to the sky and opened my mouth. We were almost home.
We crashed through the door and crumpled to the ground. And laughed. And laughed, and laughed.
Husband and wife, son and daughter.
Through the tangled stress of my complicated life, the world brought me back to silly, old fashioned, often forgotten,
joy.
Excellent. So true. So many people would have complained about the rain. You embraced it and enjoyed nature.
ReplyDeleteYour posts never fail to fill me with emotion. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteA friend on facebook shared this photo. I immediately associated the photo with this blog post. I don't know if the link will work here, but here goes:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=356357214423070&set=a.353187718073353.80665.173085862750207&type=1&ref=nf
O.P.W.