It has been a series of drippy, dreary days in Minnesota. The rain has at times been powerful and torrential and other times just drizzly, like a fine mist. Throughout it all the sun has been absent, the skies gray and gloomy. People are nearing the end of their collective ropes. Yesterday I was privy to the conversational comments of a few mothers of young children who had, much too soon, lost their lust for the summer vacation. Having been trapped inside for too long, their creative juices were stopping up.

While I am now a fair distance from those days of trying to entertain children on rainy days or, even more importantly trying to help them entertain themselves, I listened with a certain melancholy longing. A favorite video of our children was a quirky, little piece called “Drizzle and the Rainy Day.” We actually rented this video when trapped inside a grandparent’s house on several consecutive rainy days. It featured an odd, hairy puppet whose true gift was helping kids pass the time and have fun on rainy days. The trick with Drizzle was that everything he used to do this were things already available in your house. I don’t remember too many of the details except that things like empty toilet paper and paper towel rolls, straws and toothpicks became quite exciting creations. A little string, a marble, a Hotwheels car and you had a racetrack or maze that wound its way from the living room couch, under the chair by way of the paper roll tunnels, through the dining room, out onto the kitchen floor where it picked up speed and crashed into the dishwasher. The amount of time, energy,design and redesign that went into these creations not only led to exercising imagination but hopefully, to higher physics scores in high school.

I remember the Drizzle Days with great fondness. The sweet, simple joys of taking what was at hand for creativity and being entertained and challenged fill my heart, not only for the boys now turned men, but for the lazy days of making something out of nothing. Of course, this gift is available to us at all times but sometimes needs the imposition of rainy days to bear fruit. I have to admit that these gray, wet days have my mind turning to acts of creation much like a good, old fashioned Minnesota blizzard. I am certain it doesn’t work this way for everyone but it does for me.

What weather brings out your creative spirit? What manner of sky can send you to paint a picture or write a poem or sing a song? What weather pattern can form around your days that leads you into that right brained place that spins out new ideas faster than you can write them down? It is a good thing to understand your creative meteorology. When you know what fuels your creative spirit it becomes easier to see the inspiration as it begins to arrive. Yarn and needles call to be twisted and turned. Crayons and paper beckon from the closet where they have rested too long. The piano, silently sitting alone in the other room, begs to be played. That recipe you’ve wanted to try but took too long or need too many ingredients, shouts: “Now! Now!”

The rain is supposed to lift and move on sometime tomorrow. So, those of us who have been trained in the Drizzle School need to get busy. Those of you guided by the Sunshine Way of creative thought, get plenty of rest tonight. Tomorrow the sun is reported to be moving in and next week the temperatures will rise as the skies clear.

There is much to be done……rain or shine!