Night full of Rain

Crawled into bed last night, aching from spring gardening tasks, and settled in with what began as the soothing sound of rain sprinkling on the trees and my neighbor’s metal shed roof.

My window was open to cool spring air, just right for covers. All in all, one of my favorite sleeping arrangements on a tired night.

Not to be. Not this night.

I first woke up at 2:10 a.m. to a torrent of rain that beat on the leaves and hammered on that metal roof. I got up, wandered around, looked out at the rain, and returned to bed, first tripping over a stool.

Worry as much as rain, woke me up at 3:46 a.m., “Oh, no, all that rain. It’s too much potassium, too much potassium. What is the chemical symbol for potassium anyway. Is it “K”? These matters weighed heavily on my mind, as the rain steadily continued. I needed to know that darn symbol.

G.’s potassium levels are too high, and that has been the matter of much concern and discussion in our house recently.

I tossed and turned for a while, obsessing about potassium-rich rain and the letter “K”, and finally dozed off. The heavy rain continued through the night.

I woke up at 5:30, to the very pleasant sound of birds singing and soft, dripping rain falling all around. Snuggled up under my covers,  my night-long struggle with rain seemed very silly. Though the potential for residual potassium might still be a problem.

What is it about our brains than turns perfectly ordinary events into worrisome nighttime situations that plague our dreams?

But as sung by CCR, who’ll stop the rain?

(For the record, K is the chemical symbol for potassium, and the internet did not reveal any particular relationship between potassium and rain.)