This weekend Bronte and I headed toward the magnificent UW Arboretum for a bit of drawing and coloring, gardens in bloom with dogwood and more. We had every intention of watching an artist friend of ours work on a pastel painting and joining in the ritual of rendering nature prior to our picnic.
Alas, it was overcast and we showed up to meet “the artist” anyway and together devised an alternate plan. A walk, yes, a walk, we determined before our picnic, just the thing to do with our time. But we had to acknowledge a grey sky that looked ominous and dared it to rain on us! And then we headed to walk the Wintergarden.
And it was at this point that Bronte said the most marvelous thing.
She looked up and noted it was not raining. She had also insisted on taking the Red and White Hello Kitty umbrella and said ever so logically, “It’s not raining, so I will put up the umbrella.”
It made perfect sense to Bruce and I in the moment. And so she did. And it began to gently rain a few minutes later. And in less than 30 minutes it was raining buckets and we retreated for some cover and that picnic. And drew portraits of each other on little pieces of paper. Furrowed brows and all.
And later…
It occurred to me that in times of pending rain I have two choices before the rain arrives or doesn’t. I can put the umbrella up proactively or I can invite the rain to rain on me as if I were a living thing in need of its nourishing moisture.
I hope you are all doing well on this glorious sunshiny day.
