Learning to Embrace the Rain

In New England the rain is usually cold and wet (well, of course rain is wet, but you know what I mean) it is damp and takes a long time to dry. If you don't have the proper rain gear (which is too much work to have with you at all times because you never know when it might rain) most likely a rainy day means running from one place to another and being soggy all day. I know that running doesn't make you get any less wet in the rain, but it means less time you have to spend in that cold sputter. So often I would grab anything important, put it under my shirt and run for the nearest cover. Muttering all the way how I hated the rain and wish it would just go away. It ruined everything.

One day I was sitting in my favorite coffee shop down town Portsmouth, I came to a realization. Rain is good. It washes away what is temporary and leaves what is permanent. It cleanses. It brings life. I still hated the rain. I still ran. I still wished it away.  

Then I moved to West Texas. (oh the humor life hands us). Here it is always sunny and hot. We joke that the weather man says the same three things everyday: hot, sunny, windy. The town where I currently reside in in the middle of mountain ranges. Rain often goes around us, leaving this little town dry. So when it does rain, it is welcomed with open arms. It is celebrated. When it rains you can drink tea and feel comforted, you can take a hot shower and feel relaxed, you can open the window and let cool breezes in, you can see plants drink deep of refreshment.

Here the rain is something to be embraced.

It is amazing how something is viewed because of how often (or how little) it is available. Sometimes it takes something not being normal for one to appreciate it. So in this desert, I am learning to embrace the rain.