Rainy Day Possibilities
“When the sun does not shine and it’s too wet to play…” what should you do with your cold rainy day? Well, the Cat in the Hat would tell you that, “It is, fun to have fun but you have to know how.” You cannot resist fun like the fish, you must rejoice in fun like Thing 1 and Thing 2 and The Cat in the Hat himself, of course. When you embrace some fun and mix in the use of your imagination, the possibilities are limitless.
An Elephant is taking a walk with his green umbrella. Ah yes, an Elephant, imaginations engaged, please. The Elephant runs into a Hedgehog who is convinced that the Elephant has his boat. “Your what?” asked the Elephant. Well surely Hedgehog has a story about his boat, “I crossed oceans on my boat and faced the crash of icy waves. I saw dolphins leap two by two and tasted the salty spray of whales. The stars were my guide and my boat a faithful friend.” Elephant is not prepared to relinquish his umbrella, but he is willing to share it and help Hedgehog stay dry. Elephant’s walk continues with Hedgehog and soon they meet a Cat who is convinced that Elephant has her tent. Next, they meet a Bear who is certain that Elephant has his flying machine. At this point Elephant shares his own stories, how he “imagined I was a pirate and my umbrella was my sword. I was a circus acrobat and my umbrella was the balancing pole. I was a home run hitter and my umbrella was my bat.” When the rain stops, Elephant attempts to move on, but the journeyers meet old Rabbit who claims that the green umbrella surely served as his cane. By now the sun is beating down and the umbrella serves to shelter old Rabbit from the heat. Cat makes some tea for all and in the shade of the green umbrella, the Elephant, the Hedgehog, the Cat, the Bear and the old Rabbit shared their stories, drank tea, planned adventures, and became fast friends. Together they went Sailing, Camping, Flying, Hiking. And when it rained they stayed dry under the green umbrella.
One bright morning after a storm, Ernst, a young blue crocodile, and his big green brother, Sol, set off for the beach. They have empty pails and there are puddles. Sol, has a plan. He is looking for rocks, and feathers to add to his collections. Ernst follows the clouds and wishes he could collect them. He also likes to follow the stars in the night sky. Sol attempts to direct Ernst to more tangible items for collecting, but Ernst has a pail and he sees possibilities in the abundant puddles the storm has left behind. Sol rolled his eyes. “Since you’re going to stay here collecting puddles, I’ll go down to the beach by myself and collect real things.” Puddles are real, thought Ernst, as he searched for more to collect. “Here’s a purple puddle… and a striped one and flowered one. Here’s a puddle full of diamonds and a puddle full of squares…Slippery puddles, smooth puddles, lemony, lettery cool puddles.” Ernst sang a song as he scooped the puddles up. Splish-splash sang the puddles as they slid into the pail. When Sol returns his pail is piled high and even includes a plastic dinosaur without a head. Ernst has collected many puddles and is quite pleased with his efforts. “They look like a pail of ordinary water!” and “What can you do with a puddle?” are two of the responses Ernst hears from Sol. But Ernst is not worried, he will figure out a use for his puddle. And sure enough, he finds beauty reflected in his puddle pail and is even able to observe the night sky he loves to follow: When night fell, stars collected in the puddle pail — and a little piece of the moon too. The next morning arrives and Ernst finds a thirsty dog drinking from his magic puddle soup. The dog leaves just enough water for Ernst to paint some watercolor pictures. She becomes Ernst’s first subject and soon Ernst has a painting collection. Sol comes by to admire Ernst’s paintings which have grown from his puddle collection. The hungry siblings set off to collect blackberries, but on the way Ernst is determined to catch some shadows in his empty pail. Sol attempts to dispute the collection of shadows, but is silenced by Ernst’s enthusiasm: “Yes, I can collect shadows!”
Now your imagination has wandered with the green umbrella and you have sung along with the splish-splash of Sol’s puddles so get ready to dance with the Rain Fish: When blue sky turns gray and it rains all day, that’s when rain fish come out and play. They hide in debris until the rain sets them free. Do you see them, too? Or is it just me? They love to splash in puddles and dance upon concrete. They gather in the gutters and then swish on down the street. Don’t hunker down and wait for the rain to pass. Instead look for rain fish treasures often comprised from trash.
Like the optimistic blue umbrella be open to the beauty of a rain storm. You never know who you might meet and what you might find. And if the rain just lasts and lasts and lasts, you can always take shelter in the comfort of books.
Quotations in this post are from primary sources listed and pictured.
