Rain vs. Snow

   

Tuesday morning I walked to work-- rain coat, umbrella, Portland clogs-- in a soft but steady rain. Tuesday evening I drove home from a dinner party through tracks of fast falling snow.  Tuesday morning I woke up to the sound of rain drumming on my bedroom roof and windows. Tuesday night I went to bed in the deafening silence of a snow muffled world. Waking to a rainy day makes me want to rollover and stay in bed all morning; just lying there listening to the rain. Waking to a snowy morning makes me want to get up an hour early to avoid being late. Rain is for couches and blankets. Snow is for floors and fireplaces. Rain is a watercolor world of headlights, taillights, streetlights and buildings reflected as water washed streaks of color. Snow is a heavy pastel of thick white punctuated with the lines and dabs of the brown and black of exposed branches and bits of buildings. Rain asks you to stay home and attend to neglected projects-- pick-up, clean-up, organize. Snow asks you to come out and play. Rain is schools filled with kids kept indoors-- playtime in the gym. Snow is schools emptied by snow day-- kids playing on saucers and sleds in the park. Rain is the dark of overcast, gray and gloomy. Snow is the brilliance of reflected light, white and alive.

I can't say I have a preference. I spent many years in Oregon soaking in the rain and many more here in Michigan waking to another snowy day. I look for the things I love about both rain and snow. I've learned that weather almost always offers an opportunity to appreciate the world in a different way. Like everything else about life, sometimes I have to look for it but there's good to be found in most everything.