I am loving the rain. It is falling, dripping, splattering, splooshing, swishing, singing, and wetting everything. The air is full of it and loving it. You can sense how the air embraces and dances with it. The trees stretch their arms out and let it shower them with its relief. It cleanses. It renews life. The green brightens against the grey sky, it's leaves billowing approval of a wet presence.
I am blessed with this rainy day. A day to myself. To recharge. To smell the goodness that falls from the grey sky. The world is not as black and white as most would paint it. The grey sky brings relief as do the tears that cleanse my eye. The rain brings life and goodness to all who seek it. To all who accept it.
It comes in rhythms.. downpours that beat fast upon the porch and now a slower refrain. softer. I can see how musicians of long ago could use the rainstorms refrain to help them compose. There are fierce moments of intense action and then a quiet steady rhythm that softens my soul.
I close my eyes. I let it in. I let the rain cleanse my tired soul, rinsing me of good intentions. Letting the me I am shine through.
I don't have to be anything more than where life, my life leads me. Others want me to be their life. But I am the captain of my ship. We may be on the same sea, but I will steer my own ship.
Now there is a wind. It is gentle and slight. The soft grey clouds are growing lighter. Their darkest moments have passed over us.
The gutters rattle and churn. The screens fill with droplets. The frogs begin their chorus, one answering the other. And in all of this clatter, the birds sit quiet.
I look out onto the cedar and see droplets holding on, stretching long and then letting go to the puddle below.
With the slowing of the waterfall, the birds have come back to the feeder. I hear their chatter. I hear their questions. They use the fresh water to preen their feathers. They join one another in the swell of the birdbath.
I know I am under the cover of the porch, but I want to run outside and run through the streams that flow along the street. I want to splash my bare feet until the skin on my toes wrinkles. I want to feel the years melt away. I want to laugh with a sister I never knew. I want to prod my brothers into action so that they will laugh with me, splash me, and call me names. I want to remember a more naive time.
But I don't. I sit here and feel of the great spirit that surrounds me. I am never alone when I'm with Nature. I never have to apologize or feel "different" because of my choices. Nature gives all who ask affirmation. She is our mother.
Across the fence, near the creek I see the cedar breathing in and out. I smell her sweetness as she lets her contentment known. I think I can see her watching me, her arms dancing purposefully in the wind to let me know, she sees me. I can see her reaching, always reaching toward the sun, and today I will let her teach me how she does this so well. You can't even tell. And yet, weekly she is taller, her branches are fuller, her reach is far greater than her roots. And her arms are home to so many. What a beautiful life she has shaped from the rain.
It is a good thing I have done today. Sit. Listen. No performance chores. Just see. Just hear. Be me.
Now the rain is gone. For now its story is over. It will come again. I hope I will be here to listen.
