Drip

A quarrelsome wife is like the dripping of a leaky roof in a rainstorm.  Proverbs 17:15

It’s been raining for over three weeks. This summer has been atypical.  We ordinarily expect rain in the summer, but it comes in a short burst every afternoon about the same time.  This season of rain is constant.  It is raining when I wake up, when I try to escape the office for a lunch break, when I go home from work and when I go to bed.  I have at least four inches of water standing in my yard making it difficult to walk to the car.  The dogs track in a sticky black mud that I have given up trying to erase.  My nice black work shoes are ruined from wading through water as I go to and fro between my office and the courthouse.  My feet are stained black from the dye.   I am so tired of being wet all the time.  It is not a gentle rain either.  It is a deluge that soaks your pants and sprays your glasses even with the largest umbrella and raincoat.  I always thought of myself as a pluviophile: someone or thing who flourishes in a rainy wet climate.  I generally love rainy days, mostly because I can sit protected on the porch in a rocking chair and watch it rain.  Or curl up on a comfy couch and read the day away. But, this rain blows under the porch roof, streams down the chimney and beats against the windows.  Accompanied by thunder and lightning that rattle the house and arrive anytime day or night, this kind of rain tires even a pluviophile. Tensions are high.  Nerves frayed.  Even I, the peacemaker feel like killing someone.  Strangling them with my bare hands…  (Maybe that’s too dramatic-I don’t think I would do it, not really, but if it keeps raining, who knows?)  We’re a foot over the average for a year already.  Even if I wanted to build an ark, I don’t have the patience.  I’d just as soon float away on a rubber raft until I land on a deserted island where I could find something else to complain about.  Hopefully, not rain.  As my brain cycled through the “I hate rain” mantra again today, I realized that I cannot stop the rain, but there are things I can do to make the situation better.  I can get some rainboots so that when I go outside and my feet sink into the muck, they will be protected.  I can turn on a light so the house or my office is not so dark.  I can bring up the Kindle app on my phone when another monsoon traps me in my car.  I can keep a towel by the back door to dry the dog’s feet when they come inside.   There are many things in our world that I have no control of right now.  But, there are small things I can do to make life better for others and for me.  I just have to quit complaining and do them.