Saturday, July 22, 2006

The Rain


The heat was unbearable, the heat index was 106. Due to power outages all over the city and Con Edison’s plea for conservation the AC’s in our house were not running on full power. The house was a little bit uncomfortable but not as bad as it was outside.I was looking forward to the cooling thunder storms that were supposed to be headed our way.

I wasn’t alone in my thinking everyone I came across that day talked longingly about the rain headed our way the way a little kid speaks of the ice cream man. I longed for the rain, I prayed for the rain. My eyes ricocheted between the night sky and the clock on the wall. It was 9 pm Where the heck was this rain we were supposed to be getting? I didn’t have it as bad as a lot of people in the city. I thought about the thousands of people with no electrical power in their homes, those unable to afford the luxury of air conditioning or a big municipal building office fan.

My heart felt heavy all of a sudden. My thoughts turned to the on going situation in Lebanon and Israel. I remember something Nora told me years ago about a Lebanese co-worker her age. Nora was singing a nursery rhyme to her child and the woman asked Nora about the song. She explained she had learned it as a child and the woman half-joked that as a child she hadn’t learned nursery rhymes instead she had learned how to duck bombs and how she’d drift off to sleep hearing her country being shelled. The imagery of the story has never left me.

I sat on the love seat feeling the “pffft pfft” breeze of the air conditioner. “Good God in heaven give us a break send some rain please!” I thought out loud. Nora looked at me and started cracking up, “How about a rain dance?” We jokingly did a half assed mini rain dance. Ten minutes later we heard the rumble in the sky and saw the crackle of electricity in the air.

We cocked our heads straining our ears listening for the sound of rain over the noise of our household and closed windows…. Then all of a sudden it came! The sky opened up and a torrential down pour of rain came down on us. The steam came up from the concrete; you could smell it and see it. I ran out to greet the rain getting soaked as the wind whipped the sheets of rain all around me all over me. As I stood in the rain allowing myself to get drenched the loud boom of thunder and lightning turned the night sky into a show of light and sound. Again my thoughts turned to Lebanon and the story told by Nora’s friend. My heart felt as if it were breaking. “Hey your rain dance worked Mia!” Nora yelled out as she took her place next to me welcoming the rain. “Uh huh it sho' did now if I only knew one for world peace we’d be all set!” I shot back. I looked into the heavens unable to see it because of the rain which was now coming down like a steady waterfall.

Maybe it was a combination of stress, the dismal news on television, PMS, and all that I’ve been through in the past month but suddenly I felt tears welling up in my eyes. and the heavens wept I felt my own tears mixing with the rain and for a brief second it felt as if the heavens were weeping with me. If the head cheese had heard a city’s plea for rain maybe she’d hear a world’s prayer for peace. God please hear my prayer, please take your hands off your ears and listen to your children’s pleas, too many childhoods are being lost to bombs.

Labels: weather

Posted by @ 2:02 AM
6 comment from:  2 Second Club ®,  Nooni,  Just Jane,  Mia,  Mr. Khurram,  Anonymous,