Even more amazing is the absolute joy coursing through my heart as my children are screaming through the raindrops. Dashing from yard to yard... Getting soaked and muddy and LOVING IT.
When I was a child, there was a large, open church field directly behind my house. My best friend and I would spend hours getting "lost" in that field. Hiding behind pine trees and under the church stoops, we would pretend to be explorers on the ocean. Sometimes we were pirates that cruelly stole loot and buried it in the baseball dugout. Sometimes we were orphans, searching for a family to love us while we survived countless tragedies. One of the best assets to our imagination was an honest-to-gosh rainstorm. A steady downpour in the middle of summer was best so our moms wouldn't claim it was too cold to get wet. A good soaking added dimension to our flailing shipwrecks and dramatic rescues. In a rainstorm, even the dingy gray rocks of Illinois become sparkling rubies and diamonds for orphans and pirates to uncover...
All of those memories flood back to my consciousness whenever it rains. And to witness my own children constructing their own memories of playing in a storm never fails to stagger me...
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Sometimes I wonder how my kiddos will make those kind of memories growing up in the city...
Grand memories. And I understand completely - but rainy days, for me, are the days I love to stay in bed and snuggle under warm covers and read in the yellow warmth of a shaded lamp.
I love summer rains! Nothing better than just tossing your cares about hair and clothes and sitting in a warm summer rain.
And letting the kids take advantage of the wet and mud! Awesome!
I really enjoyed this post - I too had a neighbor friend who engaged in elaborate imagination days with me - we were usually much older than we were, living in paris, in an extravigant apartment.....it's fun to remember those times.
Open fields and swing sets . . . yet another reason I am so ready to move to the burbs.
Isn't great how imaginative kids are when given the chance?!
We get lots of rain on the West Coast, but not nearly enough storms! Glad to have met you at BlogHer.
There really is something magical about rain and how it seems to capture memories. Especially during the summer.
I loved the way you wrote this and how you captured it in a photo. Beautiful.
My son learned how to jump for the first time while we were outside playing in the rain. He found a big rain puddle and just couldn't resist. Time does seem to slow down when you're outside playing in the rain.
that is awesome! I have similar memories at my grandparents farm playing with my cousins.
It's actually storming here right now. We took Sophie outside in it and she was like WHAT. THE. HELL. I imagine she'll enjoy it when she gets a little older, for now, not so much.
Ahhhh! And in white dresses!
Oh how I love a summer rain! I am totally making my boys run around it in next time....
They will think I am crazy but hey, I might as well add fuel to that bonfire ;)
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