April Showers

"Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. 

Let the rain sing you a lullaby." -Langston Hughes

My magnolia's spring blossoms are irrepressibly cheerful, even in the rain. 

Flowers are blooming

Song birds are twittering.

Golden sunbeams fill the late afternoon air

And you know what? Gracie and I are just not having it.

Oh, I know. Spring is leaping into our lives as a joyful gift and as the skies in the Pacific Northwest finally begin to lose their grey ache, my dog and I can't help but kick up our heels a little bit.

But seriously. Our daily walks are so much easier when it's cold and gloomy outside.

Good weather brings out the walkers and the joggers and the families on bicycles and the intermittent dog walkers and the groups of kids milling about and the young lovers looking for a place to kiss and the baseball players and the high school marching band and the Little League moms and dads with their flocks of folding chairs and everyone else who is excited to be out of doors in the sweet promise of the April sunshine.

Bless every single one of their opportunistic hearts. 

Yet that's exactly why good ol' Gracie and I don't mind the days when our hair drips with raindrops and we splash through puddles and I curl my wet fingers up inside the sleeves of my jacket and my cheeks sting from the cold and we both watch the dark clouds scuttle across the sky.

We don't have anything against other people, but man, we absolutely love having the streets to ourselves on the rainy grey days. 

And that's why my dog and I are both happy to let the April showers fall.