Memoirs of an Amnesiac

I can't exactly recall when I last bathed in the rain. I remember as a young child how I would wait for the gutter on our roof to serve as the water course for rainwater. In my young mind, it resembled those showers in the bathroom which at that time only the affluent were lavishly using. When May came and drizzles started to grace the parched earth with a refreshing taste of rain, I would await rain days with much gusto, like a little kid who is excited to open her only birthday gift.

I loved being drenched in the rain. I liked the soaking feeling and having to wear clothes that are as wet as sponges could be, while feeling cold and freezing when the downpour fades because it has been replaced by the gentle wind.

I loved the feeling of staying home on a rainy day. I could curl in bed with a good book and a cup of a 3-in-1 coffee. I could be in tune with my inner histrionic self while playing those nostalgic-inducing music. I would pretend that I was the girl left behind by some estranged man (in a rather made-up movie I myself directed and produced) while rain pours gently on her, washing her waterproof mascara. (For some reason they still smear, even when labeled as "water-proof.")

Like death, rain is an equalizer. It falls on anyone, whether you are a lady with red stilletos or one with bare feet; old with a wheel chair or young with crutches, with graying hair or newly-permed, rich or poor. No one escapes the rain (except of course when you are indoors).

Whether you are well-equipped with the state-of-the-art wind breaker umbrellas or raincoats that resemble that of Batman's proverbial costume, complete with boots to match, or an invisible cloak that Harry Potter used, you might think you come geared for rain. However prepared you are, as in life, nothing will ever make you prepared for the inevitable.

Most of us do not necessarily like getting wet nor stepping into water puddles created by the rain, especially when we are off to some business meeting or a date we've been planning for weeks (or months). The inconvenience of having to change clothes and the rather "chick-that-got-wet" semblance is a major turn off for that date we prayed would eventually ask us out the next time around. And what about that business proposal when our "face values" have depreciated?

A friend of mine once told me that when I see that the sky is red (or a shade nearer) in the morning, it signals that rain is on its way. These days, it's hard to tell. As with the struggles we go through life, much discernment is needed for the "weathers" in life we need to battle out. PAG-ASA in all its advancement (as it proudly claims to be), could not even correctly forecast whether a low pressure is about to become a typhoon. Funny how the forecast this 1:36 pm was that Cebu would experience cloudy skies and moderate rainshowers with thunderstorms (I seemed to have seen a pattern here, hmmm...) while all of us were sweating under a scorching sun.

Nature teaches us so much about life and living that we could ever think of. Rains signify those "downs" (for some, the "ups," depending on one's perspective) in life when one feels that he/she has replaced Atlas by carrying the world on his/her shoulders. It is inevitable and no amount of preparation could fully arm us with its onset. It could go slow or fast, in huge amounts ever recorded or in drizzles. One can never tell.

May we always go back in time when rain was all we ever prayed for, when playing in water puddles seemed like having one's own imaginary swimming pool. When "sandayongs" seize to appear like gutters but imagined-bath room showers.

This way, whatever we go through in life, no amount of rain could ever taunt us nor shake us. We will never mind getting wet.

Because our human spirits are water-proof.