For those of you who aren't in Texas, that might seem like a pretty meaningless statement. "So what", I can hear my friends and family in Florida saying. "It rains every day."
But not in Texas. In Texas, I've learned, rain is a precious thing. Instead of an every day occurrence, it's a rare treat.
Each time rain is even a slight possibility, I become an Accuweather junkie. I keep it on the first menu page on my phone, my tablet and my computer. I start the TV on the Weather Channel.
My level of hope rises and falls with the number at the bottom of the page. "20% chance on Friday. Okay, that's better than yesterday when it was only a 10% chance for Friday. We're going in the right direction." Or "Heck! It was a 60% chance for rain this weekend, but now it's only 40%. No!!!"
And when it does rain, I try to make sure I am where I can see and hear it. I don't want to miss a single moment of that wonderful moist air.
I go for walks in it. I take pictures. And then when it ends, I return to my post on Accuweather, looking for the next day without a zero at the bottom.
I miss the daily rain. I miss knowing that if I missed a chance to dance in the rain today, there was always tomorrow. Here, missing a single rain shower could mean waiting weeks for the next precious drops.
And maybe that's a lesson for me. In so many things, even things I already love like rainy days or great beaches or my family or my friends, maybe I haven't been paying enough attention. Maybe there's been too much of the "there's always tomorrow", and not enough of the "who knows when (or if) this will come again."
I hope I won't always have to live where rain is such a scarce commodity, or friends out of reach for a spur-of-the-moment lunch. But even when I am back in the world of daily rain, and when friends and family and beaches are all within reach, I hope I will remember this lesson. I hope that even in abundance, even in bounty, I will remember to be grateful for every single drop.
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