IT'S LIKE RAIN ...

Yesterday, after noticing deep gray clouds rolling in quickly from the west, I decided to drive to pick up Bone from school -- not wanting to get caught in the rain. I grabbed the umbrella, in case the rain started before we were all back in the car, but crossed my fingers that the rain would wait. It didn't. Just seconds after Bone burst through the double doors onto the playground, the rain started to fall -- cool and light at first, and then quickly -- the way it always does in a rainstorm.

I popped open the umbrella, covered Bird, and called out to Bone to hurry as I started to run to the car. But as I was running, I realized how good the rain felt. It has been unseasonably warm (HOT!) here, the house has felt stuffy and suffocating, and I spent most of the morning/afternoon standing over a steaming sink washing china for EMMELINE. The rain felt cool and crisp, and without thinking about it too much, I ask Bone if we should walk home in the rain. He is seven -- so of course he said YES!

We walked, the water soaking us, making everything feel heavy -- but we just laughed. Laughed at how we looked. Laughed at the sound of our feet sloshing through water and mud. Laughed at the look of wonderment on Bird's face as the rain beat down like a percussion band on the nylon umbrella covering him.

It was impossible, on that walk, not to feel that flicker of childhood magic that is so easy to forget. The flicker of  wonderment at how something so simply -- something like rain -- can be transformed into something extraordinary. Something beautiful. Something magical.

As I dried off back at home, I thought of this wedding I spied a while back on Once Wed, and it was official -- I was smitten with rain and the magical-ness of it. I mean really, aren't these pictures just perfect?