Last year I met an Italian man on the stairs of Rue Maurice Utrillo in Montmartre, his eyes lit up when I told him I lived in Vancouver, “Ahh Vancouver…” he said smiling “very beautiful city.”
He told me he’d visited Vancouver a few times for business, and listed off some of his favourite things about the city, and then he said; “But it’s too bad about the rain, I cannot stand so much rain all the time”
That stopped me on my tracks for a moment; I got a little defensive – “Rain? What rain”?
All those times I railed against the rain, who would have thought I’d get so defensive when someone else complained. I should be commiserating with him,
Instead, I fed him the same tired and annoying platitudes I’d been hearing for years, “oh, but it’s the rain that makes it so beautiful, you should see the city on a sunny day after the rain, It’s so invigorating, everything comes alive… so bright and glorious, you’d agree the rain is worth it.”>

I went for a walk one late afternoon just after the rain had stopped, I couldn’t help but think… the city is most beautiful right after the rain.