Column: These are a few of my favorite things

I’m always happy when it rains. It makes me feel cozy inside, like my inner body is the blanket. My skin gets tight and tingly, and my eyes dry. 

Early today, around 9 a.m., I heard the tight ptt ptt ptt on the roof above my bedroom, and I opened the window to smell it in. A hawk swooshed over my neighbor’s house. The trees looked tall and plentiful. 

Last week when it rained, it was late at night and I was just about to go to bed but I heard the sound that makes my eyes go wide and my mouth formed an “O” and I inhaled a sharp breath of excitement for what might be outside. I ran through my bedroom door and through the living room and the kitchen to make it to the backdoor.

I told my sister to come with me as I stood outside to get drenched. She said no but that she’d watch me anyways. When I got into bed that night I didn’t change out of my soaked clothes. I wanted to preserve the earthy smell of the rain. 

One time, a boy told me that I shouldn’t stick my tongue out when it rained because a worm might fall into my mouth. “It’s true. It happened to my cousin once,” he said. “It did?” I said, both of us only in second grade. “Yeah, it did. Don’t do it. Seriously.” I did it anyways. The concentrated taste of air, of plants, and of the sky was worth a couple worms down my throat.

Driving in the rain while listening to music gives me a feeling that I can’t replicate anywhere else. The music and the puddles and the dripping houses and the umbrellas and the quick feet and stale, grey, clean air. I get a feeling in my chest of complete satisfaction in the world. 

“Happy“ is a documentary about communities finding true happiness through interacting, doing what they love, and tending to their environment. Near the end of the documentary, there is a clip of a woman feeding her birds. Despite this being a simple task, she is smiling with her hands extending above her, and the birds are cozied up on her bench.

The narrator speaks over this clip, saying “Doing things that are meaningful, appreciating what we have. These are the things that make us happy, and they’re free!” I feel similarly to the woman with the birds. Rain is something that a lot of people see very often, birds are something that I see every day. To others, rain might be a nuisance or blockage, but to me, it is pleasant, meaningful, and heart-warming. Rain creates a shift in my mental, emotional, and physical atmosphere. I feel whole. I feel content. It’s a great day. 

Siddhartha is a philosophical novel about a young man’s quest for spiritual enlightenment. Throughout the story, he comes across many different people that influence his lifestyle and ways of thinking. In the end of the book, he explains to his friend the trick to enlightenment.

When describing a common mistake in one’s personal search, he explains that “When someone seeks, Siddhartha said, “It can easily happen that his eyes only see the thing he is seeking and that he is incapable of finding anything, incapable of taking anything in, because he has an object, a goal, because he is possessed by this goal.”

The little boy I spoke to in second grade wasn’t able to experience a happy day in the rain. He was too busy seeking the worms, making him unable to notice the freshness of the rain and the heaviness of the clouds. 

Finding happiness in little things can slow you down. It doesn’t have to be rain, it can be birds, or people, or a garden. I’m always happy when it rains, and that’s because I feel serenity and satisfaction with it’s impact on the whole entire world.