I Can See Clearly Now The Rain is Gone

The rain fascinates me. It can come down in torrents and elicit a shallow fear, water falling less in drops than in fists. It can wade gently down like a curtain of more-than-mist, bathing everything in a dreamlike light. With a cup of coffee in hand, everything can seem right in the world. And, it can just rain. Plain and simple rain. Something you drive through, something you hear while you cook, something that just is.

However it comes to meet us here down below, it is always the day after that gets me. The streets are washed of oil and grit I never noticed. The morning light bounces off grass, off trees with just a bit more vibrancy. The air breathes a freshness of renewal. Most of all, though, it’s the sky. Even with lingering clouds, on the day after it rains the sky is an unparalleled, crisp blue. The sky looks more like a feeling than a color.

On these days, when the sky is polished blue, I think of how lucky we are to be here, how lucky I am to see the sky but feel it so differently, how lucky I am to recognize that feeling.

Sunsets get most of the acclaim, with sunrises right behind. But the sky after the rain is a simple reminder that the everyday is there, waiting for us to appreciate it. It’s nothing spectacular but everything worth soaking in.

Maybe it’s that it doesn’t rain here in California that often anymore that paints these days with a tint of rarity, one that elicits a sense of the sublime. Maybe it’s that rain is inherently renewing. Or maybe it’s that simple weather changes help to break up the monotony. Whatever it is, the day after is an everyday worth pausing to notice.