Day 30
In the Costa del Sol storms are a bit like a bad hair cut. You’re devastated when you first look, you don’t want to go outside, but you know in time it’ll get better. Soon enough it’ll be sunny and you’ll have forgotten about the rainy day blues.
In the past a rainy day has been just like any other day, but only less enjoyable to a small degree. But as a pedestrian, who depends upon the streets, rainy days change the entire nature of your day. Waiting at the bus stop isn’t quite such a non-chalant deal. I dare you to break out that iPod. Remember how well it did when you dropped it in the toilet? Yeah, maybe it’ll play nicer with huge rain drops. Or simply walking by the road is a hazardous game of chicken with the cars. Will they spray you with a puddle? And navigating those fools crazy enough to ride their bike in the rain is a whole other ordeal. They fail to realize that their brakes DON’T work in the rain. So no, you can’t just pull in behind a crowd at a stop light and expect to not wipe us all out. Rainy days also call to mind proper etiquette lessons that are never explicitly taught. Do you stop the lady from sitting on the bench that’s actually wet and she just didn’t notice? Do you give up your spot under the alcove for someone else? Do you even care how many people you whack with your umbrella as you haul ass home? Do you cuss out the cars as they spray water up at you, probably on purpose? And do you bring all the homeless of Malaga home? And that poor black kitten you always see in the garden, are you really going to leave her meowing in this weather??? But all of this is subordinate to the real question: which shoes do I wear??
Hahah, just kidding. If you know me you know I have 3 pairs of shoes- sneakers, boots, and flip flops. (and my salsa shoes, come on, that’s a given though).
Leaving the dark and dirty streets of Malaga for the countryside of Álora I came to appreciate rainy days in a whole new way. The mountains were dusted with clouds passing through like old ladies back floating in the kiddie pool. Daring streaks of light darted through the slow train of clouds, illuminating patches of farms, and herds of sheep or tagged the occasional passing truck. The valleys closed themselves off, withdrawing into their own worlds, shrugging their mountain shoulders in, rocking with moody winds and dark clouds. Standing at the back of my school the whole Guadalhorce Valley lay before me, unknowingly beautiful in its sinister disposition. It was as if I was under the sea and a thunderstorm was brewing above the waves, but nothing was clear, only murky gloom discernible. Rain poured from disparate clouds, blurring the ridges of mountains, moving the grey front closer and closer.
But a rainy day is not a day lost. Sometimes something better than sunshine comes from it. Sometimes, there are rainbows. And today, was magical.
I saw an entire rainbow. Red orange yellow green blue indigo violet in a grand crescendo and decrescendo from left to right. A perfect inversion of my smile, the rainbow towered over the valley. And as the train carried me away, the window of the car framed for a perfect moment the total beauty of the miracle. Lasting only the length of a deep inhalation, the rainbow reigned, arched in unfailing determination, the dominion of color a herald of the coming vivacity.
Like a playful puppy the rainbow followed me back to Málaga, refracting a double rainbow over the dry river, disappearing into the buildings of the center of town.
For a Libra, the rainbow sightings held special meaning; the balance of the sides radiated a peaceful calm. Equilibrium. Only the exact thing I chase. Perhaps there’s luck in a triple rainbow sighting, or perhaps its nature smiling at me to say that grace and balance are the restful respite after tumultuous times. For now though I’ll enjoy the electric highs and the thunderous lows of my time here, awaiting the day when I feel the totality of my prismatic splendor.
And I would like to wish Mr. and Mrs. Mayo a very very happy 1 month anniversary!! Were you the rainbows watching over me?
My love and strength to you all!
I hope that you all feel free enough to run through the rain, hoping to get as wet as you can possibly get, simply because the rain is falling, as my students did after school today. Find the freedom of innocence and revel in it while it lasts.
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