TIA Tuesday - Rainy Day Edition

Since we moved into our house two weeks ago, we've experienced approximately one hour of precipitation. While I won't complain about sunshine, I was understandably excited to finally feel rain this weekend. With rain came fall-like temperatures - going from highs over 100 on Saturday to highs in the 60s on Monday - and a break from my 9-month summer.

I spent approximately 5 hours on Monday sitting on my front porch enjoying the rain. With a new sweater & new jeans, I wrapped myself in a blanket and thought, prayed, watched the rain fall and the spiders crawl, and read all day long. I'm currently immersed in Madeleine L'Engle's "Walking on Water." She wrote the "Wrinkle in Time" books we all know, and also wrote a whole body of nonfiction, kind of a la C.S. Lewis. I love it. I am my mother's daughter. "Water" + rain...perfect.

I have cultivated an affinity for rain in recent years. Rain gets a bad rep most days. It can be inconvenient, cold, dreary, and, frankly, wet. I especially dreaded rain during college when I knew I had to walk around campus all day and often never got a long enough break for my jeans to dry out.

But I have loved meditating on the cleansing power of rain in recent years. And the general power of rain - in floods, in hurricanes, in its colder form: blizzards. Rain is refreshing and God-sent and always good.

Since this is a TIA post, let's talk about rain in America. I'm abundantly blessed to have a car to drive in the rain, a sturdy umbrella, rainboots, and a warm roof over my head. I know I'm not invincible to rain - I certainly learned that during Nashville Floods 2010 - but I'm able to comfortably enjoy it. In Namibia, I eventually didn't even bother with the umbrella. You would just suck it up and walk through the rain and deal with it. Sure, you'd be wet all day. Sure, you'd walk through knee-deep flood waters. It was "survival mode" all the way.

Like many things these days, I'm deeply appreciative of renewed perspective and gratefulness for the ordinary things like rain. And cool weather. Is fall almost here?!

This Is [rain in] America.