Summer rain...

One thing I love the most about summer is sitting up late and listening to the rain hit against the metal roof fan. I hate air conditioning, I could swelter all summer long and be happy. I feel like the warm times are much too short in Chicago. I hate the cold. I ache all winter from it and long to be outside in the sun.

I can hear it drizzling now and want to open the windows. It always amazes me how loud summer is. Between the different cadences of the cicadas, the trilling of the toads, croaking of the frogs and the crickets kind of chiming in; it actually makes for the loudest noise pollution ever.  But why is it a neighbors party half as loud would keep us up, but the nature lulls us to sleep?

And then the  heavy rain comes and for  a moment the night is still and quiet and warm.

But then suddenly the  rain subsides and everyone starts to put their two cents in again.

The next day when the sun comes out and starts to burn all of the moisture from the grass, I love to go out and weed. 

It amazes me how good it feels to get down on my hands and knees and just start pulling out everything that just popped up over night. It's like perfect work for the soul. I love tall weeds the most; they come out root and all with the wet ground.We have these grasses that lay flat against the regular grass. I have to gather them up to pull them out and it always surprises me how long they really are because they lay so innocuous against the ground. Sometimes I have to dig my fingers into the  dirt to get the root, and then there's that damp loamy, earthy smell that comes up as the dirt kind of crumbles and clings to my fingers, mushing itself under my nails to be tortuously scraped out later. But in the moment, the smell is grounding and almost primal, and the minute I get that out, root and all, I feel just  a little bit accomplished.

There is something so satisfying about clearing even a small patch and seeing the possibilities of the bare earth. Whether it to let other plants get bigger, just clean up an area or even start something new, it's such instant gratification to toss a huge pile of green into the compost and think for just one moment that I beat nature; even if it's just  a little.