water/color

this post is dedicated to rainy weather, humidity and thunderstorms.

this week, it rained. the humidity peaked at 97%. the sky was mute and colorless and it matched the gum-spackled cement. on days like this, i long for a drop or two of color.

i wished i could have had a more aerial view of the streets, maybe from the top of a parking garage, to take photos of the bright umbrellas floating along down the sidewalks, like watching leaves trickle down a stream. they would have looked really good against the dismal grey...

i am a sunny summer girl, through and through. i live and breathe for summer, for flip flops and putting my hair in messy braids, for the glorious long evenings and warm nights when you can frolick outside at midnight without getting cold. i usually don't like anything that obscures the sun and/or its warmth; and because so much of my thoughts and feelings are made of colors, the slushy grey months can be depressing. but this week i made my treks across campus and gleefully trampled through clear puddles, and somewhere in all of that, i realized that i was actually - thoroughly - enjoying the rainy days. could be that my enjoyment has to do with my gleeful rain boots - grey with bright cheery umbrellas on them. they remind me of my mind-photo of the umbrella rainbow, which is looking and sounding better and better each time i mentally revisit it. another delight of rainy walks is hearing the thwit-thwit of the raindrops on my umbrella - a bright green color, might i add.

so i guess if everything were bright, sunny, colorful...then the really great colors of my umbrella and boots wouldn't stand out. there isn't any reason to appreciate colors except for the possibility of less color. i think the reason today's raininess was so satisfying is that i have been under the sun for months, and hardly noticed the colors anymore. the brightness of summer doesn't feel as bright after four months of it. and suddenly, the smallest scrap of color, the tiniest molecule of heat, is a greater delight than all the millions that preceded it.

and today, as i stepped out the back door of my wonderful new workplace, i noticed with new vigor the brilliant bright sky, the pillowy clouds and the way the sunlight gets trapped in them and finds its way out again, and felt the warmth on my skin as i discarded my work jacket. life is good. :)

"Red Boots" by Heather Rivet