For the past four days Florida’s experienced rainy weather and everyone in my office is tired of it. I, however, love the rain. It brings back many memories of rainy seasons in Baguio. It's funny to hear people who dislike it. They complain the day is dreary, it’s annoying to walk through puddles, or that it makes them feel sad or bored. I can’t imagine not liking the rain since I basically lived in the rain most of my childhood and learned to be soothed by it.
Rain always meant the possibility that school would be cancelled due to a typhoon. Or that we might experience a brown-out. Those were always magical times to me as a child. My siblings and I would immediately open drawers, pull out candles, light them and then watch as our house illuminated with a warm, yellow glow. Dad would build a fire in the fireplace and then we would lounge around near it, play board games or listen to a book as my Dad read to us.
Rain always had good memories attached to it. It meant the world slowed down for a time and the everyday routine was halted. New rules came into play and imaginations grew as my brother, sister and I would have to find ways to entertain ourselves inside the house.
Since half the year was spent in rain, stores in Baguio sold beautiful umbrellas. It was a tradition to go pick out your umbrella for the year, like kids do with backpacks in the States. Mom would take us to the grocery store to pick out an umbrella and sometimes even a cute lunchbox. As a child I would stare at all the colors and open up each kid-sized umbrella for further design inspection. I’m sure two must-have colors were purple and pink, since at the time (and to some extent even now) they were the coolest colors.
One time after it had rained for weeks I remember thinking about Noah and the ark. Wondering what it would have been like to never have seen rain and then one day watching as the clouds rolled in, darkened, and then emptied onto the earth for forty days and nights. How frightening! But through their experience I can have confidence every time it rains that it will stop. The world will not be covered by water again, and the rainbow that appears in the sky after the sun shines reminds us that God is faithful.
Rain always meant the possibility that school would be cancelled due to a typhoon. Or that we might experience a brown-out. Those were always magical times to me as a child. My siblings and I would immediately open drawers, pull out candles, light them and then watch as our house illuminated with a warm, yellow glow. Dad would build a fire in the fireplace and then we would lounge around near it, play board games or listen to a book as my Dad read to us.
Rain always had good memories attached to it. It meant the world slowed down for a time and the everyday routine was halted. New rules came into play and imaginations grew as my brother, sister and I would have to find ways to entertain ourselves inside the house.
Since half the year was spent in rain, stores in Baguio sold beautiful umbrellas. It was a tradition to go pick out your umbrella for the year, like kids do with backpacks in the States. Mom would take us to the grocery store to pick out an umbrella and sometimes even a cute lunchbox. As a child I would stare at all the colors and open up each kid-sized umbrella for further design inspection. I’m sure two must-have colors were purple and pink, since at the time (and to some extent even now) they were the coolest colors.
One time after it had rained for weeks I remember thinking about Noah and the ark. Wondering what it would have been like to never have seen rain and then one day watching as the clouds rolled in, darkened, and then emptied onto the earth for forty days and nights. How frightening! But through their experience I can have confidence every time it rains that it will stop. The world will not be covered by water again, and the rainbow that appears in the sky after the sun shines reminds us that God is faithful.
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