Homegrown Sunshine

This morning, after seeing my daughter off on the school bus, I remained standing by our kitchen window. My thoughts drifted to what I would've seen here only a few short months ago: a seemingly infinite expanse of white fields. Today, the only white I see is in the blossoming crabapple tree and petals of a few scattered daffodils. There is green, beautiful green everywhere, but it didn't get there without a little gray... and as I look up, yes, here it is again. Here comes the rain.

I usually don't mind rainy days. After our long winter, I'm downright grateful for it instead of snow or sleet. Still, this morning I couldn't help but yearn for the sunshine and blue skies we had just yesterday.

"Whatcha thinkin' about, Mom?" was followed by a big hug and kiss. A little boy now stood by my side, and we looked out through the rain streaked window. He sighed and offered some 7 year old wisdom, because he obviously could see I needed a dose. "Mom, you know we can't have all sunshine, even though it's pretty nice. We've got to have rainy days too. They're not so bad... come on, I know! Let's read some books!"

So that's what we did. We spent the morning hours reading all kinds of books in "Daddy's chair." The gray clouds and rain outside lost their power.  We chose to make our own sunshine:

Suppose you're dressed for walking,

And the rain comes pouring down, 

Will it clear off any sooner

Because you scold and frown? 

And wouldn't it be nicer

For you to smile than pout,

And so make sunshine in the house

When there is none without?

~ Phoebe Cary

Our local weather forecast is rain and thunderstorms all week, and that's to be expected. It's the end of April, after all. My prediction is of a slightly different sort:
a week of sunshine, of the homegrown variety.