There’s just something about rain that stirs my soul and stimulates my senses to a heightened level of awareness. I’ve always been fascinated by the sights, sounds and smells that accompany falling rain! When I venture out in it and taste the raindrops on my lips, my thirsty soul is refreshed and my spirits revived! You think I’m a little weird, right? Haha! Just wait. It gets better!
What I most love about the rain is that I FEEL it! When I see rain falling, I yearn to encounter it, to be IN it! I covet an experience with it. Do you? I mean do you REALLY “feel” rain like that, or does it just leave you cold, grumpy and wet? Do you savor gentle droplets pitter-pattering on your face? Do you welcome it, embrace it, throw on your raincoat and rush outside? Do you crave the sensation from wind-driven, lashing rain hurling down on you so hard it stings your skin and awakens your senses? Now that’s what I’m talking about! Not just reacting in annoyance to its chilliness and its wetness, but experiencing how it makes you feel inside. How it touches you – how it moves you emotionally and spiritually.
Told you it gets better! By now some of you really think I’m crazy, right? It matters not! I’m good with the way I feel AND the way you feel about rain, and about me. Feelings aren’t right or wrong, they simply ARE! This is just my perspective.
As a child did you fall over yourself to don your wellington boots, raincoat and sou’wester hat, so you could puddle-jump with your friends? Did you laugh and scream together as the gritty rain water splashed over your boots and trickled down your leg?
Have you ever stood in a stream and felt the pull of the water flowing ever faster, ever stronger at your boots, flattening them to your legs – until you jumped onto the muddy grass banks, fearing you might lose footing and get carried away like the stick that swiftly disappeared downstream, tossed about like a toothpick? Was it a thrill? Did you
throw your head back in the pouring rain, close your eyes, open your mouth wide and stick out your tongue to soak up the succulent drops from heaven? Do you remember how freeing and invigorating that was? I do! Do you recall, in child-like wonder, the simplest of things … like dancing with the raindrops, launching a matchstick boat in a torrent of water flowing down the street gutters? Did you laugh hysterically when your umbrella blew inside out exposing you to the full blast of rain, flattening your hair to your head – and you couldn’t care less because it was the coolest thing ever!! Did that ever happen to you? Was it fun for you?
It was for me. Of course I grew up in England, where weather dominates the beginning of almost every conversation, and talk of precipitation is expected. Rain is a common occurrence there! H-e-l-l-o! Like almost every other day {or more} in one form or another. It’s either the damp, mysterious, misty, tiny droplet variety, the bone-chilling drizzle kind or the steady, soaking rain!
Then there’s the stormy, heavy-duty-lashing, side-driven rain propelled by high winds. Rain that pounds on the roofs and gushes off the gutters, saturating the ground, flooding the streets, gardens and causing rivers to overflow their banks. If you’re caught in this kind you run for shelter of a doorway or even better, seek out the nearest red phone booth, shivering with your “honey” and loving the excuse to snuggle closer for warmth, as the rain splatters against the phone booth windows. Ah-ha! Many fun moments. You should try it sometime!
My Dad is not a fan of rain. {So much so that we moved to Africa in search of sunshine. Then later he and my Mum moved to Australia for much the same reason. Warmer, sunnier climate.} Dad kept a diary of the weather for years to prove how bad it is in England. LOL! He’s quite the character! When it came time to go on holiday, the weather dictated when and if we traveled or not … and what day and time we left. Since it rains so much, our travel plans were disrupted frequently, leaving this anxious little girl disappointed, sadly watching the raindrops roll off the glass front windows, chanting “rain, rain, go away, come again another day.”
It wasn’t that I disliked the rain obviously, but rather I was eager to go away on holiday and it needed to stop so we could get on the road and head to the seaside or wherever! Of course the rain was not influenced by me in the least and always seemed to take its sweet time before pausing and giving way to a dry spell, just long enough for my Dad to give the okay to leave.
You’d think I would dislike the rain wouldn’t you? That I’d be sick of it! That I’d blame it for past disappointment, or associate it with unpleasant feelings. Not so! I admit it’s inconvenient at certain times, but I don’t allow rain to ruin or change my plans {exceptions of course} or affect my mood adversely, or get mad over that which I have no control! But that’s just me, I know everyone’s different.
Back to rain. I wonder at it. It’s always so different, sometimes gentle, drenching now and then, but constantly wet, always fascinating in the way it falls, ever inviting me into its embrace. To experience it. I have always loved rain and the way it moves me, touches my emotions.
It invites me to lean into it, go with the flow of it. Know its nature. I’m so thankful for it and its provisions to us and our planet. I love that it revitalizes me, and inspires me to explore the depths of my soul for deeper meaning, for greater understanding of who I am and whose I am.
I feel rain. I feel God.
“Ask rain from the LORD at the time of the spring rain– The LORD who makes the storm clouds; And He will give them showers of rain, vegetation in the field to each man. Zechariah 10:1
PhotoCredit: Girl with Umbrella: Copyright: / 123RF Stock Photo
Simple questions from a sound mind. Ones we ask ourselves {inside our heads} as we go about daily life planning our day, directing our activities. In contrast, these same queries from a confused mind are complex and disturbing to hear … at least they are to me. These two little questions have haunted me for some time now. It’s not easy to shut out their echoes inside my head.
