Smooshy Childhood Memory Moment

The Bay Area is currently experiencing a thunderstorm, the likes of which are extraordinarily rare here.

My office is warm and cozy as I listen to the sound of rain on the pavement outside. The sky went quite dark about an hour ago, and I turned on my desk lamp. It gives off a soft, yellow glow as thunder rolls in the distance. The window in my office is open to let in the smell of newly washed parking lot. I just made some tea.

When I was a little girl, there were often evening thunderstorms during the summer months in Minnesota. I would sit in the warmly lit living room with my family and read a book, while the lightening flashed and thunder grumbled outside. If it was still storming at bedtime, I would watch the lightening from my window for a while before finally closing my eyes and letting the patter of rain lull me to sleep.

As a teenager, if I awoke to a thunderstorm, I would sometimes get up and go outside, just to smell the freshness of the rain and lightening in the air.

Now, as a grown up at my desk in my office, thinking about clients and caseloads and social workers and MediCal payments... my mind drifts back to a time when a thunderstorm was just about the coolest thing around. Suddenly, I feel all warm and cozy inside... and I pause to watch the lightening and smell the air.

I guess I'm still a Midwesterner at heart.