Thoughts on Motherhood :: Watching Raindrops

I can remember it like it was yesterday. The rain pounded on the roof of the car and the windshield wipers flopped back and forth, sloshing the rain around as my mom drove.

Huge droplets fell on my window in the backseat and I would tilt my head and gaze up and the trails of water sliding down the glass. The wind would push the raindrops and in my mind I would pretend that they were racing as they fell. I'd cheer on certain trails and as they reached the bottom of the window, I'd glance back up to find more raindrops to cheer for.

It was a simple form of entertainment but one of my favorite pastimes. I'd get so excited if it started raining while we drove around town. The first sprinkles would fall and I'd announce in my mind "Gentlemen, start your engines!"

The other day, I was carting the boys around in the car in a rain shower. At stop lights, I'd gaze up at the trails of water and remember with a smile the races that I used to witness as a child.

I caught a peak at Griffin in the back seat and he had his head titled, watching the rain splash onto the window. "Watcha' thinking about?" I asked him. "Oh, I just like to pretend that the raindrops are racing."

I couldn't believe that his sweet mind imagined the same game that I had, thirty years earlier. I treasure these moments, when you realize that a part of you is in your children. Of course, they inherit so much from us but to see something so special, something so sacred from my childhood unfold in his made my heart happy.

Maybe years from now, when I'm a grandma and driving Griffin's children in my car, I'll look back to see them watching the raindrops race and know that, just maybe, my family got the best parts of me.