Rainy Days and Mondays

The green is popping in Minneapolis. We got rain over the weekend and now the leaves are exploding. This is my favorite time of the year when it greens up and smells earthy and fresh. I even took a walk yesterday with my umbrella in the rain and loved every minute of it. And now this morning, more rain and that familiar Monday feeling of "what happened to the weekend and when does it come back?"

I'm very body conscious today. Partly because my back seized up on Saturday night. I was walking from a door to the car when I got the chills and shivered really violently. By the time I got to the car, my back had started spasming. I immediately thought back to my evening. Had I done something to bring this on? Did I move a certain way that led to this situation? Did I lift anything particularly heavy? And quite simply - no. I was simply walking and it happened and thus followed a sleepless night of restlessness and pain; of taking hot showers all night long just to have the warm water massage that spot on my back; of walking the length of my apartment in an effort to feel better (sorry to my downstairs neighbor.) And finally, blissful sleep at 5 am. And now better and following an indulgent day of chick flicks while I dozed in bed, including my favorite "Notting Hill." Truly one of my favorite comfort films and it always makes me cry in it's sweetness and charm. Boy meets girl; boy falls in love with girl; girl is movie star and comes in and out of his life and then finally, girl sees boy for charming sweetness that he is and they marry and end up on the lovely park bench they saw at the beginning of their relationship. I realized yesterday that this love story is told from the man's perspective and he is so charmingly vulnerable and resigned, which is how I feel around love these days. It almost made the back issues worthwhile to lay in bed and watch Hugh Grant as he stumbled through having his heart broken and then gloriously put back together again.

So I'm thinking of love today. And of rain and spring and green reawakening. At a relatively late place in life, I feel I'm in spring. I am tending to my own garden so that I flower and bloom and nurture a spot where great love can live. There is great love in my life and for that I am blessed beyond compare. But there is also room for much more and of course, one great romantic love that I know is there for me. Isn't that what we all we ever really hope for? Boy meets girl..boy and girl fall in love; or boy meets boy or girl meets girl. Simply, it's the best part of life.