I love walking around the lake behind my house in the rain.The endless trails in this incredible state are quite empty then, and the open sky is amazingly brilliant, yet opaque like a shower curtain.Along with the sunless light comes a sense of privacy.Stepping into it is like finding you can go naked into the next room.You can laugh in the thunder and you can cry in the rain.I’ve done both, but rain or shine, life is always exciting and magical to me.I still find it unbelievable that I live in the most perfect place I’ve ever known for balance between urban and recreational access.I want to feel it all.I refuse to miss anything by staying home when it rains.And if it rains forever, I’ll live on anticipation.Rainbows follow rain, don’t they?I don’t want to experience them from behind glass with muted senses.Let me breathe the colors and taste the ozone after a storm, and above all let me share it.One of my friends at the local pharmacy – Nikki Miller – says she can taste colors, so it’s possible.When all is said and done, the gold at the end of the rainbow is in me, in my attitudes and in how much I dare to live the truths inside me.

Is there a person who stirs the music and the poetry in you to the max and beyond?Makes you be the best you you can be, and then opens up unlimited possibilities?I promise you there is.You’ll react instantly when that happens, even if it doesn’t register consciously, because you’ll just come alive in their presence.And when you do, you’ll find yourself breaking old habits and escaping the walls that confine you.You might even go walking in the rain.

I’ve been stripping a lot lately.Umm…stripping the decks on the back of the house, and I’ve got the sodium hydroxide burns to prove it.The burns seem to heal overnight, but not so the carpal tunnel.I am only inching forward on the new novel.When the carpals start carping, I lay on the couch watching the clouds race by through the big window, listening to Brandi Carlile sing “The Story” and wishing I could write one.

Thanks for all the mail about the happy ending to my son’s harrowing swimming lesson in a Canadian lake in last month’s column.There’s another chapter to that from 10 years ago – if only I had raised my kids in Minnesota!Maybe I’ll tell you some time, but this month’s column is about teaching and learning and how to survive the loneliness of both.Here’s the link:[ Storytellers 09-16-07: THOMAS SULLIVAN: CONFESSIONS FROM THE BULLY PULPIT OR HOW TO GET NAKED IN FRONT OF AN AUDIENCE AND NOT BE NOTICED].