December rain, 2006

I've never seen rain like this before, rain that's pounding the land hour after hour like a relentless plague. Certainly not in my lifetime, not in Singapore or in any other place I've lived. If only I could edit at the same rate. I still can't quite see the end of these two projects, the last of the year and the last before I start teaching at the local university in January.

Still, staying up late to work and listening to the rain hurtle from the heavens to the roofs and pavements is something I'm learning to relish. The weather phenomenon makes me want to mark these days as strange, something strange and beautiful. It's certainly not beautiful for the people who have to put up with the inconvenience of crowds and traffic jams and floods, or worse, mounting water damages; but receiving the rain just as it is - watching it fill the fields and slosh against brick walls, feeling it chill the air and cool my feet - leaves me with a renewed sense of wonder at this time of year. In Singapore, where many things are predictable and somewhat monotonous, this unceasing rain is a surprise, a hand of Mother Nature reaching out to lift our chins so that we finally think about something other than overdue work and personal problems and Christmas shopping lists.

I'm going to remember these few days and nights as the ones when I stopped and stared, breathed air that felt new, walked barefoot in the rain, learned to be patient, and let myself believe in the unexpected.