Raindance
April showers bring May flowers. When I was a little kid, I thought this was a line in a poem and struck me as funny. You see, back home in the Philippines, we hardly get any rain in April. Summertime comes in March and extends all the way to June. And April was usually scorching hot. This is my third year in the US and now I see that April showers bring May flowers indeed paint a pretty good sketch of what it’s like during these times of the year.
It’s May and the flowers have bloomed but a storm brought rains down here in the desert valley. Due to our location, we don’t get a lot of rain and so when I woke up this morning and saw the ground drenched from the overnight showers, I felt as happy as a little kid who sees snow outside her window. Rain to me is comforting. It brings back fond memories of childhood like those times my brothers and sisters would play out in the rain or make paper boats and race them on the flowing water along the sidewalk gutters. Or when we were forced to stay inside the house and Mama would cook champorado in the afternoon for our merienda so we can stay warm. She would often have the radio tuned in to the MellowTouch station where they play love songs from the 50s to the 70s. Or when as a teenager, I would just stay in my bedroom I share with my two sisters and I would just write long letters to my childhood boyfriend as I listened to the rain drops pelting on the roof and windows. I especially like the smell of rain in the afternoon, when the water cools the hot soil. Mama always said the smell can make for an upset tummy but I didn’t mind. It was an odd smell but I loved it.
Aside from not getting enough rain here, I can’t hear the cool soothing rain sound anymore. With the houses insulated and the windows double paned to protect from the miserably cold winters, they’re effectively sound proof. And so during rainy days like this, I try to spend some time out to enjoy this little luxury of smelling the rain and doing a little raindance.
