...when it's raining is to let it rain" Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Yesterday, I walked to the Marriott Center to catch a CES Fireside given by Elder Oaks. Walking there, I was struck by how pretty BYU can be when seen from a different perspective. Each day at school, I take the same path from my apartment to the SWKT, passing the same stretches of grass & buildings & trees. You get used to it after a while, & start to forget to notice things. Well, this time, I took a stroll on the opposite side of campus, & enjoyed the little hills and paths strung along the lower campus buildings. It had been years since I'd taken the time to walk through there, as I am usually in a rush to get somewhere on campus. I wish I could have spent more time walking around. After an hour spent indoors engaged in some sweet spiritual osmosis, we walked outside to find that the grey clouds that had been rolling by overhead previously were now sharing their own 'message'...
I love the rain. It's probably my favorite type of weather phenomenon. Without a care for what the downpour, I gladly embraced the cool feel of each drop as it played against my skin. & hair. & dress. Most of the girls I saw were hunched down, trying to cover their heads with their purses, and scampering as fast as they could to get out of the elements. It made me laugh. Why run from something so wonderful, so amazing, so full of life as rain? I knew when I saw the wet sidewalk outside of the Marriott that I was not going to make it home dry. Yet I saw it as it an excellent adventure, an opportunity to enjoy campus once again from a different perspective. That, & based off of the distance that I had to walk from the Marriott to home, I figured that the marginal effect of a few minutes shaved off of my journey would be insignificant to how wet I would become...
Anyway, while walking through "the most romantic part of campus", it got me to thinking of those places and areas that fascinate me the most. Namely, downtown districts, be they in cities with towering skyscrapers, or small towns that have old buildings that make you feel like you've walked into the 1950s. I love rusty old cars parked next to fields the color of gold, & barns that should have been painted 15 years ago. Old factories, train tracks in the country, & anywhere that has a lot of trees. For me, nature does its part, & the man-made additions serve to compliment the environs... I think that, really, it's those imperfections in the buildings, the rust, the weathered bricks, the overgrown grass, the dirt roads, that give it the beauty... It's as if nature is saying that she wants to add her own brushstroke on the works of art we set upon the world.
I've always wanted to move to someplace green. My friends in high school knew that while I didn't really have solid plans on career path, as most anything would suit me fine, I was constantly dreaming of my green land. Maybe I'll find it there, if my work/family is heading in that direction, but maybe not. Who knows, perhaps I'll get an awesome job offer or "family offer" to someplace like Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, or someplace just as hot & full of desert. & dessert...? Either way, I decided this summer that you need to find ways to love the place you're in, which includes weather conditions that might not seem like too much fun at first. If I can find the joy in the rain, why can't I find the joy in the brilliantly hot sun?
