Feel the Rain on Your Skin

It's sort of cliche to talk about "feeling the rain on your face"....many have sung about it. My personal favorite is Unwritten from Natasha Bedingfield where she sings: Feel the rain on your skin. I like that song, I don't care if it is the theme song from The Hills.

This morning I felt the rain on my face and on my skin and I can tell you, if you've never intentionally lifted your face to the sky to feel a rain's mist on your face, you must.  We've experienced unseasonably warm and pleasant days around here lately and I've enjoyed each one with a bike ride up to school and back. I make my daughter's school a destination just so I know I'll do it. How can any mother disappoint a five year-old who has just hopped off the bus and is now looking for Mommy?

The ride up to the school is an easy one now. Not so much the first week. It's only about 20+ miles a week, but the mental and physical rewards are significant. I ride quickly in an effort to beat the bus. I arrive at school breathing only slightly heavier than normal and relish the little rush of endorphins . The ride home is whatever I make it. Fueled by my ipod playlist- I take a path less traveled and try to increase the distance a little more each time. If I'm really pushing my speed, I get my angry groove on and pedal to The Foofighters.

Today, it began raining just ever-so-slightly and instead of heading home to avoid it, I tried a new route and savored the mist accompanied by Third Day's Call My Name. There is such a rush that comes from breathing deeply and imagining God's voice telling me:

Call my name, say it now

I want you to never doubt

the love I have for you is so alive

And I felt so alive. Just taking in the fresh air one deep breath at a time far outweighs 1,000 visits to the therapist. I wanna do that thing that Meg Ryan does in that movie City of Angels, where she closes her eyes and throws her arms out like wings away and points her face toward the sky because she feels so good. But I'm very clumsy and I'm sure I'd either fall down or run into a truck just like she did, so I think better of it and keep my eyes open.

I do wonder what people think as I ride by smiling to myself like an idiot. They don't know that two years ago, I could never imagine myself riding my bike again. They don't know about the scar tissue that infiltrates my lung and how it will burn like hell the rest of the day because of the exercise, but I don't care. About what they think or the burning. One does not understand the blessing of working lungs until you have struggled for breath.

Today is a new day and it is a gift. So I want to feel the rain on my face and skin. I want to smile like an idiot all the way home and think about how good God is to me. Maybe tomorrow, I'll ride with my eyes closed are arms out like Meg Ryan and just pray for a truck-free route.