Minnesota Prairie Roots

IN BETWEEN ALL the rainstorms that have defined today and yesterday and so many days here in Minnesota this September, I offer a ray of sunshine.

I am sitting here in my office typing this as the preschool neighbor boy I’ve never met, because our busy, busy street seems as wide as the mighty Mississippi, splashes in water puddled on dips in the uneven sidewalk.

Until this moment in this rainiest of days, I have thought only of how very sick and tired I am of all the non-stop rain, the gloom, this weariness that has descended upon autumn.

And then I see this boy, this happy, happy boy dressed in his sunny yellow t-shirt, khaki pants and flip flops splish-splashing through the water.

Father and son have been outside for more than 15 minutes now. Together they’ve run through the puddles, stomped their feet, splashed and jumped. Run and leap. Turn around and race again through the pooled waters.

I cannot stop watching them.

On this day when I’ve heard of flooded roads and flooded basements, closed schools and rising rivers and more rain in the forecast, I am smiling.

I am smiling at the young father, clad in a tank top and shorts and flip flops. He doesn’t care whether his boy gets his clothes dirty or his feet wet. With the wave of his arm, he encourages his son to forge through the water.

For a moment I have forgotten about the gloom of the day. I see only sunshine.

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling