What I Have Learned - Take Thirty-Four

I have learned that I miss rainbows.

I have lived in San Antonio for four years.  I was born in Minnesota, and lived there for the first three years of my life.  The twenty-seven years in between were spent in Florida.  I don't remember enough of Minnesota to miss living there, but there are some things I really miss about Florida.

I love the weather in Florida.  There are hurricanes, thunderstorms, lots of rain, and an unbelievable amount of humidity.  But Florida lives up to its nickname 'The Sunshine State'.  And it is that amazing sunshine that brightens your days and makes you forget about all the other not-so-nice weather days.

Rain in Florida is not like rain in Texas.  First of all, it REALLY comes down in Florida.  Sheets of rain, pouring rain, walls of rain.  But none of this gray skies, drizzly mess, days of rainy weather.  When it rains in Florida, the clouds blow in, then blow out as quickly as they came.  And the rain is gone, the sun comes out.  The sun - you know, the thing we can sometimes go days without seeing?? Well, in Florida, that just doesn't happen.  Even before a hurricane comes ashore, the skies can be clear and blue, sunny and beautiful.  Even in the EYE of a hurricane, the sun will come out.

And after the storm, and the sun comes out, the skies boast beautiful rainbows.  There are days you will see more than one, some weeks you see several, sometimes days in a row.  They are such a common occurrence in Florida, as with so many things, you begin to take them for granted. 

I never realized how important the rainbow after the storm was, until the rainbows no longer came.....