Make Sure You Run In The Rain Sometimes

 

Sometimes, I have so much going on inside me that I feel like I could burst. Thoughts, feelings, dreams, ideas, all jumbled and tumbled inside my head. They well up inside my heart and spill out through my eyes in salty tears. I am just an ordinary girl but I have dreams. Many dreams. And I feel so deeply. Is that what creativity is? Sometimes I need to take some time to be in nature, be inspired, connect with the basics. It is surprising what comes after having this time.

Today it was hot humid, sticky. Not a pleasant day. We waited with anticipation for the inevitable change that rides in on the wind with a rain storm after these kinds of unbearable days. The release of the change, the cooling of the breeze, the patter of the rain falling gently on the roof calling you to come and dance.

Today was also my middle son’s 15th birthday. Another of my children heading as fast as possible towards manhood. I had a party to put together, yet I needed to fit some exercise in between work and getting the party ready. I looked at the sky and listened to the rain and my immediate thoughts were that I would have to head indoors, to the gym. Yet I yearned to be out in the fresh air. I went with my heart and set out into the gently falling drops of rain.

As I felt the rain on my face, I turned my cheeks upwards, like a sunflower seeking the sun. My energy was supercharged as I headed up into the national park that lies close enough to my doorstep to run through a couple of times a week. It was a sensory feast. The scent of damp earth, not yet washed deeply, just dappled by the little fairy droplets, the sweet aroma of the lemon gums wafted through the entire park. It was quite simply magnificent. The water brings out the colour in the trees and grasses and the Australian blue green was everywhere, shimmering and glistening through the watery sheen.

 

Forgetting the fact that my type 1 diabetes, as it has a tendency to do, interfered and stopped me mid flight, this was one of the best runs I have had in a very long time. Sometimes, taking a risk, striding out into the rain when the sensible thing to do would be to stay indoors, is the very thing you need to do. It awakens you. Inspires. Calms and engages you all at the same time.  It makes you realise that there is more to life. That you can do things another way and be happy. I find inspiration, ideas, creativity, flow out of this time.

I arrived home wet, sweaty, Ben Folds in my ears, with low blood glucose and a happy heart, just as my parents arrived home with my 5 year old and my husband arrived home from work. “Everyone is here!” said my son (the birthday boy), as he opened the door.

Yes we are I thought. And how lucky we are. I looked up one more time to the rain, eyes closed and heart open and turned to making a party.

If you have never done it, make sure you run in the rain at least once in your life. Otherwise, you might regret it.

Helen

xx