I love the Rain

I feel so blessed when it rains. When I was a young girl, we used to sit on the porch at my Grandma's house in Kansas and watch every rain storm. It was a celebration to have it rain. We would enjoy the drama of the clouds darkening. Perhaps a wind would blow, then the thunder and lightning would come and finally it would begin to rain. The rain drops would begin here and there. The smell of rain on the dry ground was so sweet. Sometimes it would rain for quiet a while, but it was so amazing to see, we wouldn't ever go inside until it was over. When the rain would subside, we would hurry out to the rain gauge and check how much we Grandma got. I remember checking every day and seeing it was 3". That is unheard of way out west here. So it is even more appreciated. We are lucky to get 12" in a year here.
I love going to sleep at night when it is raining, and listen to the rain dancing on my window and puddling on the ground. I sleep the best when it is raining.
Rain has always been considered a blessing, and I never grow tired of it.
As I got older, I found some wonderful records that had a beautiful rainstorm going on while music played called One Stormy Night. The legend is that a rare rainstorm happened near Las Vegas, and some quick-thinking person recorded it, then set it to music and put it together, and sold it. I still can listen to those CD's and never tire of them.
Rain continued to bless my life at very special occasions. It rained the most it had in 30 years the day of my garden wedding reception. We had NO alternative plans in case of inclement weather. So we all gathered inside. I didn't cut my cake, all I remember was this sea of heads and shoulders as well-wishers gathered anyway to wish the happy couple their best. Sailor's father and brother became the chauffeurs, and ferried everyone from the top of the driveway down to my folks house, so they could park their cars in the field at the top of the road and not drag as much mud into the house, and also not get stuck in our long driveway. At the time I did NOT consider this a blessing. Actually I thought for a long time afterwards that I didn't have the reception yet, because it didn't happen as I had planned. I imagined myself wandering between guests in our beautiful 5 acre yard, and greeting all the people in my wedding dress, introducing my husband to them.
As the years went on in our lives, we discovered that we were blessed with rain at every important event in our lives.
Every time we moved, we were blessed with an amazing rain storm. I have ruined cookbooks and photo albums to prove it. One storm was so amazing, we weren't sure we could continue driving through the night, because the lightning was so bright the rain so dense the wipers couldn't keep up, and the canyon roads were so curvy and wet. I was following The Sailor in the car. He was driving the truck and trailer. He came around a curve and hit a huge boulder that had fallen off the mountain. I barely missed it. We pulled into the next station and luckily had a spare tire. That boulder had done a number on that rim.
As our lives continued, it rained on every baby's birth day. I had six children in the first three months of the year and we were blessed with rain at every birth. Sometimes it wasn't very much, perhaps a few drops, sometimes it seemed like a miracle that it was rain and not snow, because two were born in January.
As this phenomenon continued, we would say stuff like, "I wonder if it is going to rain today?" or "It can't possibly rain in January, I wonder if this time snow will count?" But every time a special thing happened to us, God sent his blessings of rain. It was like he was sending a message of approval. We got rain.
In the summertime when it rained, I taught the children to not be afraid, but to embrace the storm. We would go onto the patio and dance in the rain. The kids would sometimes get umbrellas or buckets to cover their heads, or sometimes just stand in the rain, allowing the rain to dance upon their heads and caress their shoulders as they played on the wet patio.
This rain blessing has continued in our children's lives, and they too celebrate with rain. On each of their wedding days it has rained. One daughter got rained out of her garden reception, but she was wise and had reserved the church a block away.
I guess you can look at life in two ways. You can call something that totally interferes a blessing or a curse. We choose to call it a blessing.
When my grandpa died, we were sitting on Grandma's porch later that night after the funeral, and a beautiful rain storm was looming in the distance. The sky and clouds lit up for an hour along the east horizon. We had the most amazing lightning show I have ever seen. It was almost like someone was orchestrating it. One cloud would shimmer, then another on the other side, then the middle would light up. This continued for an hour. We marveled at this and decided that Grandpa was giving us the show of our lifetime, sort of telling us that it was okay. We told Grandma about this, and we all held each other and cried our own raindrops of sorrow, but of joy as well. Joy for a life well lived. Joy for our own lives and our privilege to have been a part of his life.
I love the rain.