Thinking in the Rain

It's raining.  Normally I like the rain, ...especially at night when I'm curled up in bed and the roof becomes a drum and the rain dances an inconsistent pattern of methodical beats that leads my restless mind out of a chaotic series of thoughts and worries from the day and into a meditative state of bliss.  But today the rain is a little depressing.  I just got back from Colorado where the sun shone on everything all day until it retreated behind the mountains each evening.  I heard the sun shines 300 days a year in Colorado.  I don't know if that's true, but we had beautiful, sunny days the entire week were there.  It's what is drawing my heart back West; the sun on the giant red rock formations begging me to climb upward, the sun glittering off the window panes of the cute little shops where people flow in and out buying things nobody ever needs, and the sun on the windshield and my arm hanging out the car window as we drive down a highway that appears to lead to the edge of the earth. 

Tomorrow I get to see my co-workers, which is another way of saying I have to go back to work.  I call them my other dysfunctional family because we are together a minimum of 8 1/2 hours a day, longer than I'm with my family during waking hours.  I'm going to make plans for a walk with my best friend who I like to see at least once a week, but rarely happens between our schedules.  I have another group of friends that gets together every other month to celebrate our birthdays.  We are overdo.  I have some gifts for my oldest son and his girlfriend who couldn't come on the trip because of work and school schedules.  I have a lot of people here in MN to catch up with.  As much as I want to move to every wonderful place I visit, I know that life is not about where I am, but about who I'm with.  And I'd rather sit in the rain with my friends and family than stand on a sun splashed mountain alone.