Rain, rain go away. Come back another day…

I want to chant it, to sing it, to beg the rain to please go away and not come back for at least a week but I can’t. I know we need it. We need the rain as much as we need the snow we’ll get later in the year. We need it to wash, to renew the world around us.

Speaking of snow, I love it. I really do. I love having snowball fights, sledding, tobogganing and other winter sports. I also like to be warm, which is probably why I’m not looking forward to the cooler weather. It’s strange how I can look outside and imagine how beautiful everything is going to look when it’s covered with snow. Then I sigh and wonder how many times I’ll slip and fall or how many times we’ll get snowed in this winter.

Strange how I love the glistening beauty of the landscape after a snowstorm, yet I don’t really like the season, isn’t it? How many people do you think say, “Don’t get me wrong, I love snow. I just hate the cold”? It makes me wonder about my sanity sometimes because that’s the way I am. I love living in Michigan. There is so much undeveloped land here. You can stand and look over countless pristine snow-covered fields with acres of rolling hills and wonder if you could possibly get closer to the Devine. I don’t think so. Not without dying.

October sees the changing of seasons. Trees lose their leaves, the colors growing brighter before they turn brown and die. Grass stops growing so long, lush and thick and animals make ready for months of hibernation.

Having little else to do these days, I sit and stare through the picture window in my living room and await the coming of the darkness, winter. Waiting for the time when everything shifts from death and dying in the cold of winter to the life of the returning sun. By the time it’s over, we all will be glad for the warmth of spring and heat of summer, already dreading the thought of the cold weather ahead. Such is the cycle of life.