Cloudy cold mornings are unwelcoming of my Sunday routine with G. We grab breakfast at the market and walk to the beach. Even in weather this brisk, the routine is comforting.
But the gray this morning somehow exposes the ugliness of my surroundings; the cracks in the pavement and garbage on the sand. I imagine I wouldn't have noticed these things on a nice day, and that thought only adds to the hollowness in my chest. Everything moves far too slowly on days like this.
G tugs on my bare ring finger, and I realize tears had been silently falling from my eyes on our short walk.
"What are you feeling, Mama?” Asks my precocious 6 year old. She shouldn't have to ask these questions, and her teeny voice and wide eyes makes it hurt more.
"Sometimes rainy days make me think of sad things, baby" I wiped my tears on my sleeve and carried her the rest of the way.
It happens like this, sometimes. A pause will expose what lies beneath the expertly arranged ornaments of my life. I don't like exposure, it's why I avoid the sun and trendy restaurants. I’m comfortable adorned in lies; I suppose I always have been.
It isn’t clear what exactly I’m sad about, but I remind myself things can’t be that bad. I love my family, my life, and my job. I have everything in the world I could possibly want. I tell myself this moping is a sign of weakness, but it twists and burns more as if to demand attention. So I sit on the damp sand and watch my daughter skip stones, thinking only of the waves.
"Sometimes sunny days make me sad," G said when we were walking home. It was time for her play date and my dreaded Sunday Skype chat with S in which he consistently manages to infuriate me.
"They do?" I stretched my voice, trying to make a joke out of it.
"Uh huh."
There was a long silence as I weighed whether or not I wanted to know what could possibly make my little girl sad on a beautiful sunny day.
"Its because," she skipped in front of me and started walking backwards up our driveway, “They go by realreal quick, and then its done, and the whole time I’m thinking ‘don’t end, don’t go away. But it does before it even begins. Rainy days last longer.’” She lunged at me and buried her pink face in the folds of my raincoat, as if she knew I needed a hug.
We stopped and kicked off our rain boots in the foyer. G ran off to her playroom and I just stood there in my jacket staring out of the open door, taking in the slow pace of a longer day.
