The Gentle March of a Light Rain

    Over our heads, water molecules collide and conglobulate until they accumulate enough mass to fall out of the sky. The first rain drops are like the pattering of feet on the ground. A light tip tap tap.... Light rain brings this sense of expectation that at any moment an ocean may fall out of the sky. A heavy down pour crashing onto the earth and creating a flow of water on its surface. Seemingly infinite, discrete sources of fluid landing on a grid that is the surface. The sound of rain is always beautiful. Light rain gives the feeling that we are at an inflection point, that we are going somewhere. It is temporary and fleeting. Cherish prolonged periods of light rain. It is impossibly beautiful.
    Certain animals choose to venture out in this weather and I would like to do so as well. I long to forage for mushrooms in a heavily-wooded forest. I long to inhabit a forest that can make me feel like a character in a fantasy novel. A protagonist who sets out on an adventure in a land of endless possibility. I long to walk among ancient trees and wondrous creatures. I long to hear the wave of chirping birds in the canopies overhead. A wave that seems to come and go, ebb and flow, with the shifting of my attention. An orchestra of sound that can both fade away outside of your perception, or come crashing down like a tsunami. I long to observe squirrels and chipmunks sneakily scattering around. A chipmunk sighting always feels rare and special. It is usually brief, a fleeting glimpse as this small, yet crafty creature mazes its away through the topographical forest floor. A chipmunks struggles are nothing to scoff at. Predators lurk around every corner, over every knotted root. The chipmunk must be brave and swift to survive. I long to spot large, four-legged mammals and observe their behavior. I long to capture their form, both in memory and in a visually-perceivable form. I would like to be an invisible observer, to view without disturbance. Oh, the curse of a conscious being. Simultaneously desiring to be both a part of the world and removed from it. There is not one without the other.

8.20.2021 12:15 PM