Simply Sunday #4

Hello and happy Sunday! 

Sometimes--perhaps many times--more is not more.  Actually less can be more.  At least with the right attitude.

So, with that in mind, here is one thing I did this week in my on-going journey to simplify life:  I watched the rain. 

Yes, it rained this week!  In our part of the country, this is a rarity. 

And the rain was such a beautiful rain.  It was not the sudden, violent kind we often get that blows trees, outdoor furniture and toys all over the place. 

But it was also not that anemic sort of rain that we get sometimes that is teasingly disappointing.  The kind where we get all excited that rain is coming, but then only a few drops actually fall. 

This week we got a steady, soaking rain.  No intense winds.  It cooled everything down for a while.  Gave our few plants a good drink.  And made little temporary rivers in our backyard along the paths where our doggies tend to run to get to the side gate.

The whole thing was so exquisite that I pushed back the blinds and curtains to just stare at it for a while. My kids were excited too.  They watched with me for a bit, but they are too frenetic to stay put for long.  Eventually I pulled up a kitchen chair, opened the sliding glass door to our backyard and closed the screen to just take it all in. 

To understand why this was a big deal, you should know I am a real Type A sort of person.  I am not good at that contemplative, quiet stuff.  Nonetheless, I tried to be mindful of all I was experiencing to really enjoy the moment.

I sat down on my kitchen chair, and was just amazed by the whole event.  The breeze felt so refreshing on my skin.  The cool dampness smelled lovely.  Very wholesome and earthy.

I looked around at all I saw from my perch inside my kitchen by the screen.  The poor crickets were freaking out, hopping to the refuge of our small concrete patio.  The river rocks that pave our backyard were so lovely as they glistened from their bath. 

Our back neighbors' huge palm trees were swaying in the breeze.  It was funny because at one point, a single palm tree was swaying pretty intensely while the others were almost still.  I'm assuming a micro-gust caught the swaying one.  It was strange to watch.

The sky was gray, but it wasn't a depressing shade.  I grew up in a part of the country where there is a lot of rain, where the sky was often overcast and made everything look sad.  The gray sky during the rain this week was not a dark color, it was light and almost cheery.  It was optimistic.

What a glorious rain!