Sometimes, like today, as I watch the skies darken to coal, and the black locusts bend with hints of the impending storm, I feel enormously safe. Suddenly, I am void of all pressure… All those shoulds and musts, mostly self-imposed.

There will always be places to go, people to see and the projects I have to complete right now, or else….or what? Bad weather is like a loud, wet, hot, cold, clown, tumbling from the bleachers of daily life to say:  I am speaking to you… slow down.

There is nothing wrong with a walk in the summer rain, a bowl of lemony chicken soup, stealing the black and white cookies you bought for the kids they left behind.

Today, I will take a bath, a nap, read a book. I will remember lost friends, some long gone.  The ones who made me laugh and cry.