Rainy Day Festivities

Once upon a time there was this girl. It was a rainy Saturday, and once upon a time this girl drove down to the lake near her house in her beautiful, black, Honda Accord. She parked in a no parking zone and had a minor panic attack about getting a ticket before concluding that there were more important things to worry about. In her blue raincoat carrying a cow umbrella she walked along the rocks shifted them to find small dry stones to put in her pocket. When he pocket was full and bulging she sat down on an outcropping rock and pulled out blue and pink permanent markers from her other coat pocket. She wrote the name of someone she cared about on each of that stone. Then she prayed, begging God, pleading with God to help that person through the difficult things they faced in their life. She prayed for the words to say, and the wisdom to know when to shut up. She wrote a different name on every stone. She quickly ran out of stones and had to search for more. After each prayer she threw the stone into the lake, recognizing how little control she had over the situation and giving it over to someone with much more. Thankfully, God doesn't just exist in once upon a time. And maybe this wasn't a fairytale. Maybe it was just a girl who was a romantic at heart, who wanted desperately to see the pain or numbness to end in the people around her. In real life her prayers just might be answered. And that's better than wishes and once upon a time.