I was catching an uber to The Hub, a pub nearby that I have come to frequent more often over the past 6 month. It’s low key, nothing fancy, and exactly my vibe. Except tonight I took an uber because of the terrible storm that has been rolling through Boston. A storm that has brought lots of rain amidst the still hot and humid summer. It’s been a long spring, a dreary summer, and a questionable weather pattern that has left us wondering if we will have a summer here at all. A week ago, I sat amidst a string of dreary drizzly days, thinking how could I ever live in a place like this. A place full of gray and rain, a place like Seattle. A place I have longed to return to for years, but never in my heart found the stillness to believe in this idea.
And yet today, in the Uber, something shifted. I look outside at the heavy rain coming down. The sound of raindrops on the car and the drops slipping down the windows. Suddenly, as I sat there, the feeling of home washed over me. A feeling I haven’t had for years. The rain always reminds me of Seattle, but today was different. Today I wasn’t just reminded of home, but I was called to the rain. I was reminded of the stillness amidst the showers, the stronghold amidst the storm
Weeks later, I am again amidst the gray as I watch the rain pour down through my window. But instead of feeling depressed from the gray, I feel at ease. I feel at home in the dreary ways of this weather. How strange to look out at the rain washing down the tree outside my window, the one I have watch bloom in the spring and freeze over in the winter. The one that always signals to me the change in seasons, and now perhaps marks a different change in season. Not that of in the year, but in life. This rain is calling me to something new, something beyond these brick walls.
The rain reminds me of home, and it reminds me of sadness. Home is hard, but there is so much love. Through sadness I have found more joy than I ever thought possible, and the rain reminds me of just this. It reminds me of the tears that must be cried, the boundaries that must be held. Oh how the rains washes over us to bring new life and new love.