The Choice of Joy: Day 18, a Novel and a Nap

There is something particularly nice about a rainstorm on a Sunday afternoon.  It is not wonderful or marvelous, just nice.

It is nice because the weather cooperates with my want to reread the opening chapter of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” and to slide into a soft and gentle afternoon nap.

The rain relieves my guilt that I am not taking Duchess for a walk and giving us both some needed exercise.  The rain stops my guilt of not paying a call on some lonely or ill friend.  My snuggling in, gives reality to the term, “fair weather friend.”  Still, I thank the rain for the excuse.

I stretch out on the sofa, book in hand.  Duchess will join me, and I will slip my cold feet under her to relieve the chill.  I will spread a blanket over both of us.  A single chapter is about all I will manage before the drowsiness sets in.  I hear the raindrops falling outside, and an occasional crackle from the burning logs in the fireplace add a percussion to the song.

I read that first sentence: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”  I smile inside.  Already my eyelids are getting heavy.

Such a joy from the rain!