[00:06.56]She had been shopping with her Mom in Wal-Mart.
[00:09.63]She must have been 6, a beautiful brown-haired, freckle-faced girl.
[00:14.00]It was pouring outside. The rain was in a hurry to hit the Earth;
[00:18.52]it has no time to flow out the spout.
[00:21.33]We all stood there under the awning and just inside the door of the Wal-Mart.
[00:26.27]We waited. Some patiently,
[00:28.42]others irritated because nature messed up their hurried day.
[00:32.29]I am always mesmerized by rainfall.
[00:35.35]I get lost in the sound and sight of the heavens
[00:38.69]washing away the dirt and dust of the world.
[00:41.37]Memories of running, splashing so carefree as a child
[00:45.79]come pouring in as a welcome reprieve from the worries of my day.
[00:49.79]Her voice was so sweet as it broke the trance we were all caught in.
[00:54.28]“Mom, let’s run through the rain,”she said.
[00:57.45]“What?”Mom asked.
[00:59.86]“Let’s run through the rain!”she repeated.
[01:02.70]“No, honey. We’ll wait until it slows down a bit,”Mom replied.
[01:07.40]This young child waited about another minute and repeated:
[01:11.91]“Mom, let’s run through the rain.”
[01:14.41]“We’ll get soaked if we do,”Mom said.
[01:17.58]“No, we won’t, Mom, That’s not what you said this morning,”
[01:21.06]the young girl said as she tugged at her Mom’s arm.
[01:24.67]“This morning? When did I say we could run through the rain and not get wet?”
[01:30.25]“Don’t you remember? When you were talking to daddy about his cancer,
[01:34.90]you said,‘we can get through anything!’”
[01:38.02]The entire crowd stopped dead silent.
[01:41.19]I swear you couldn’t hear anything but the rain. We all stood silently.
[01:46.56]No one came or left in the next few minutes.
[01:50.16]Mom paused and thought for a moment about what she would say.
[01:54.32]Now some would laugh it off and scold her for being silly.
[01:58.91]Some might even ignore what was said. But this was a moment of affirmation.
[02:03.51]“Honey, you are absolutely right. Let’s run through the rain.
[02:08.11]If we get wet, maybe we just need washing.”Mom said.
[02:11.83]Then off they ran. We all stood watching,
[02:15.18]smiling and laughing as they darted past the cars and yes through the puddles.
[02:21.01]They held their shopping bags over their heads just in case.
[02:25.07]They got soaked. But they were followed by a few
[02:28.64]who screamed and laughed like children all the way to their cars.
[02:32.07]And Yes, I did. I ran, I got wet. I needed washing.
