It Keeps Raining

It Keeps Raining

Hail at my cabin in Munds Park, 9/14/11

I’ve been spoiled by living in the desert for almost forty years. This week I whined because it was gloomy and rainy up here in Munds Park. Not just a little rainy. I’m talking pouring every day and thunderstorms and malt-ball-sized hail. I must suffer from SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder.) SAD is usually mentioned in the winter in the eastern states when people don’t get enough sunshine. The cure is a special lamp that mimics sunlight. My tolerance for no sunshine has eroded since living in the Valley of the Sun. It’s three days without a full day of sun and I fall apart.

I’m a writer, so being confined to the house isn’t a bad thing. I finished the revision of my magnum opus, my novel. Since I couldn’t take long walks, I got up the gumption to query an agent I’d met last year at a conference. I haven’t heard back yet.

It’s cold, too. I make myself stir from the cozy chair that’s next to the heater and go to exercise class in the mornings with Sheri. I do feel better afterwards and the other women are very cheery. That helps. And yesterday I did see two rainbows.

I’ve always talked to my dog, but now he’s answering. I don’t think that’s a good sign. I got the sewing machine out of the storage shed and may actually start on the quilt I’ve been planning for five years. That’s desperation!

I take the daily sunshine in the valley for granted until I’m somewhere cloudy or rainy. I do think people are friendlier in climes with an abundance of sun. What would New York or Paris be like if they had three hundred days of sunny weather? Maybe the clothes the designers fashion wouldn’t be so outlandish.

The rain has let up enough for me to sit on my porch. I’m grateful. Oh! There’s a ray of sun! I lift my face to it and bask in the lightness and warmth. Intellectually I know it will stop raining and get warmer again and be a beautiful fall. I must learn patience.