Two Things Making me Happy

I've found a blog that I absolutely love, The Writers Almanac with Garrison Keillor. It's brilliant. Keillor is a bit of a celebrity in Minnesota. He's a writer, and the host of a popular NPR radio program broadcast from Minneapolis/St. Paul every week. He's also collected and edited two books of poetry, Good Poems, and Good Poems for Hard Times. Great, great books. I didn't care much for poetry until a friend of mine shared these with me, and completely changed my mind.

The blog has a daily post with a poem, the biography of someone fascinating who was born on that day, and sometimes an event that happened on that day in history. Today's post mentions that it was on this day in 1939 that Germany invaded Poland, which led to England and France declaring war. I thought this paragraph was particularly interesting:

But back in Germany, people were not celebrating. Most Germans remembered the horrors of the First World War, and they didn't want to go through that again. Two days after the invasion began, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany. American journalist William Shirer was in Berlin as a correspondent for CBS Radio, and he wrote in his diary that day, "It has been a lovely September day, the sun shining, the air balmy, the sort of day the Berliner loves to spend in the woods or on the lakes nearby. I walked the streets. On the faces of the people astonishment, depression. Stunned."

Fascinating. It's a perspective I've never heard of or considered before.

Thing Two - It's raining. I love, love, love rainy days. They're good for the soul.

It rains fairly often in Minnesota, which keeps everything very green and alive. I miss that so much. One storm in particular sticks in my mind. It had been windy all day, and then late in the afternoon the wind stopped. Everything went dead still. I was outside, probably bringing in clothes off of the line so that they wouldn't get wet, when I noticed that the sky had gone dark green. Really green. And then, off to the west, I saw the storm clouds rolling across the sky. It was a solid wall of dark clouds, literally rolling towards us. When the rain hit it came down in sheets, and the thunder made the dishes in the cupboard rattle. So awesome.

Sometimes the storms would hit during the night and wake us all up. The thunder boomed and bounced us out of bed. The lightening lit up the house like midday.

Of course, most rain came more quietly. Soft rain that would last all day. That was my favorite. The air was cool and fresh, and smelled so clean.

Now I wait all summer for a rainy day. When when finally comes, it relaxes my head and heart. I feel content. I guess I don't know why. Maybe because it brings back a feeling of home. Whatever the reasons, I love it. This rain today makes me very happy.