Rain unexpected

Yesterday, I learned that we had had 3 percent of our normal rainfall for June -- it added up to less than a tenth of an inch, which to me might as well not be counted. In that case, it had been over a month since it rained. It really starts to wear on the soul, the unbroken brightness and hot skies, the dust, the smells that never get washed away, the plants fighting to survive. As we prepared to enter July, which is more rightfully our drier season, I was preparing myself for another two months without rain.

But this morning, clouds gathered -- I doubted, having been disappointed so often -- but they continued to gather and darken and eventually they broke. Glorious. Such an unexpected blessing. I walked in the rain as much as I could and smiled a lot for the rest of the day. Oh, rain! Absence makes the heart and the earth grow needy, and our need was met a little today.



The goldfish zipped around as raindrops plonked into their pool, and I returned home to find all my flowers bowed, shiny and dripping.