I published this on the Sidequesting feed on 03/16/2020, two days after my birthday when lockdowns were starting. I'm cleaning up the Sidequesting feed and removing it from there, but I didn't want this one to fully disappear. It's a small snapshot of a really rough time and a single good moment embedded in it. Two years later, on 02/13/2022, I still resonate with this. It's been a time, hasn't it?

TRANSCRIPT:
With this ongoing pandemic, it feels like the world is falling apart somewhat faster than it usually is. And when the solution is isolation, things get lonely.  So I invite you to sit with me here, for a few minutes. We’re going to take a breath together, and try to relax for just a moment. I’ll talk about some unimportant things, and you don’t even need to listen if you don’t want to.

Right now, it’s raining in Southern California. It almost never rains here, so I always love it when it does. We’re getting almost a whole week of rain. Yesterday, I sat in my car and recorded the sound. It’s one of my favorite sounds, the noise of rain hitting the roof of my car. I love watching the droplets slide down the windshield. When I recorded this sound, sitting in my car, the drops were reflecting the clouds and the trees and the chain link fence I was parked next to, near the main road.

I think my cats also like the rain. They sit near the window and look out, marveling at the water falling from the sky. I think it’s really cute. I suspect that if they were actually out in the rain, they would like it less. I, for one, adore being out in the rain. When I was a kid, I would sprint outside as soon as there was something more than a drizzle, and run around in shorts and a hoodie, without any shoes on. These days, I’ll just go for a walk in my raincoat, but something about the rain always makes me happy.

In times like this, it’s hard to find happy things. But I try to go out of my way to look for them. They’re not always falling from the sky, like with the rain. I find happiness among my friends, with the various communities I’m part of, or sometimes, doing silly things alone in my apartment. Only my cats ever get to see those.

It’s important to deal with the bad things. It’s okay to be sad, it’s okay to be scared. A lot of us are pretty scared right now. But we’re going to get through this, and we’re going to do it together. I hope that in these extra unscheduled weeks where you don’t hear from me, you’re taking care of yourself, and the people important to you, too. Hang in there, friends. You'll hear from me soon enough.