Rain Lover

I learned a new word recently. Pluviophile. It means a lover of rain, someone who finds joy and peace of mind on rainy days. For the past couple of months, I've been busy preparing for a special event, cramming in hours of volunteer time each evening after work and on both days of each weekend in order to be ready for the big weekend. With the fine summer weather, I've also wanted to take walks every evening. I've had housework, shopping, church and other volunteer obligations to fulfill. I've slipped in precious time with my husband and stolen moments with friends. Just looking at my to-do list each day made me feel increasingly frazzled and exhausted. I love to be busy, but not at such a constant harried pace. And then it happened. One evening in the middle of all of the busyness it rained, a gentle, constant drizzle under gray skies and a bit of wind. The mounting weight of my to-do list instantly fell from my shoulders. I felt the sigh of relaxation, all because it was raining. I love rainy days and rainy nights. I especially love the sound of rain striking the windows as I'm falling asleep. Rain seems to give me permission to stop for a while, to reflect and to renew. Rain invites me to curl up in my favorite chair, put my nose in a good book and steal a nap. And so it was that evening. The pluviophile in me stopped all that she had been doing, ignored the to-do list and celebrated the rain with her feet up, a good book on her lap, a drowsy relaxation overcoming her. I shouldn't need a rainy evening to permit me to take such a much-needed break. I should be able to create those rainy-evening priorities without the precipitation. That is a work in progress. For now, I am grateful for the quiet, gentle rain that quieted my mind that evening, allowing me to be gentle with myself. I love the life-giving gift of rain.

Watching the Raindrops

I love the occasional rainy afternoon.  Such was the weather a week ago Sunday, when the rain fell gently, my partially read book beckoned me and I found myself sitting in our sun porch, rocking, reading and watching the raindrops.  With the windows open, the cool breezes wafted in.  It was glorious!  Rainy days are peaceful.  They quiet me down and cause me to rest, relax and reflect.  If I had my druthers, the sun would shine nearly all of the time and the temperatures would be a moderate 75 degrees, for I love to be out and about, getting my energy from interactions with others.  However, a balance is needed and rainy days help provide that balance for me.  So, I sat and watched the rain nourish the soil, the trees and the plants and I allowed it to nourish me, as well, in the quiet of my rocking chair a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Raining and Resting

I'd been feeling tired lately, but still had a long to-do list for my day off.  However, when I awoke to a thunderstorm in the morning and the sky remained gray and threatening, my to-do list became far less important.  Instead, I replaced my energetic list of so-called important tasks with reading, resting and finally a nap.  There's nothing so decadent for me as to succumb to slumber in the afternoon when it isn't brought on by a cold or illness.  To simply make a nap a priority is heavenly to me.  On that day, I truly needed the nap to take away the overwhelming fatigue from a busy week.  It revived me -- mind, body and soul.  Unlike the song's lyrics about rainy days getting me down, this one perked me right back up.

Rain, Rain Go Away

We have had an incredibly long stretch of rainy days.  The gloomy sky, the constant drizzle, the damp cold have not been signs of our typical June.  I usually look upon June as one of the most glorious months of the year.  Yet, this year, this month's weather has acted more like that of the last three months: kind of gloomy and depressing.  In fact, if I didn't know what month it was, I'd say that it was already autumn.  In fact, many people have commented, with disgust in their voices, that it feels much more like October than June.  Several people have lamented having to turn back on their furnaces to ward off the chill in their homes.   With all of the recent rain, I struggle to remember last summer's devastating drought.  Certainly, we wouldn't welcome such a horrible experience to return, for all living things were compromised to their limits.  This year, I'm looking for a happy medium.  I crave those delightfully light days of June when all feels right with the world.  So, I'll ask for the rain, rain to please go away and be replaced by true blue June days with sunny skies, puffy clouds, warming temperatures and the joyful anticipation of the summer to come.

Sunny Side of Rain

I read in a book the other day a phrase I'd never heard before, yet aptly described how I had felt on a recent day: Smiling showers.  The sun had shone for days and days until the grass was turning yellowish, the ground hard as rock, the plants limp and the farm fields filled with a dusty haze.  Everyone was waiting for a good, soaking rain.  And it finally came one recent Friday evening and Saturday.  As much as I love a sunny day, I could only see the sunny side of rain as we watched the downpour.  And how the farmers must've danced with joy!  A rainy day is such a welcome respite.  The earth gets replenished and I tend to take it easier.  My to-do list looks less threatening on a rainy day and the easy chair and half-read book look more inviting.  So, I'm grateful in many ways for our recent rainy spell (those smiling showers) and all that it did to help us have a sunnier disposition.

Gentle Rain

Today was one of those lovely days when the sky is quiet and the rain is gentle.  I awoke to a thunderstorm, the kind that makes you want to stay tucked in.  But as the morning progressed, the gentler the rain became. As I drove to a conference in a nearby community today, a song ran through my head that my good friend Charlene and I sang at church a couple of years ago.  The piece of music was written to sound like gently falling rain, especially when two voices sing it in a cappella harmony.  As much as I love the vibrancy and get-up-and-go quality of sunshine, I need an occasional gentle-rain kind of day when my words become more reflective and thoughtful and my demeanor more quiet and reserved.  I think I listen more on rainy days, for there's just less to say.  Today's rain has made the grass even greener, the tulip heads pop up, and the young leaves on the trees unfurl just a little more.  One bit of sadness, though -- A beautiful magnolia tree I have so enjoyed the past week lost most of its ephemeral translucent, white blossoms in the rain and those that are left on the tree look wilted.  A pool of spent white petals surround the tree's base.  Despite the disappointment of the falling magnolia petals, today's gentle, falling rain brought a much-appreciated peace and contentment to my being.