Comments on: The Rain at Dawn

By: Paul

Paul — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:28:33 +0000

@ Dana: Thank you so much for sharing that! I can almost walk the Arizona landscape in your words.

@ Lirone: You’ve made me wish I lived in a tall building with huge windows! Thank you!

By: lirone

lirone — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 14:27:54 +0000

Hmmm…. all these nice watery images make me feel just how dry is the area I’m living in – haven’t seen rain for about 6 weeks and none in prospect! But the flip side of that is the flawless blue skies and the clarity of the air. My apartment’s on the 23rd floor and has huge windows so the sense of space is astounding. And some days I see huge black and white birds soaring and wheeling out there in the air, wings flashing white as they catch the sun… that’s my restoring time.

Not to mention the often rather beautiful sunsets and moonrises over the mountains!

By: Dana Hunter

Dana Hunter — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 06:10:30 +0000

Oh, Paul, how homesick you’ve made me! Arizona monsoons were incredible: clear skies, and then the sudden build-up of clouds, lightning splitting the sky apart, and BOOM! With the thunder came a cloudburst that seemed like the entire world had turned to water. Gorgeous.

There was one storm that dumped so much rain in an hour that our neighborhood turned into a lake. We kids ran out afterward and sailed our boats under a bruise-blue sky and an incongruous rainbow. I still remember the gritty feel of dirt and plant matter on my legs and between my toes as we waded out.

We don’t get that here in Seattle. It just rains. Constantly. Softly. There’s no stark contrast between dry and wet. It’s beautiful, don’t mistake me – but there’s a beauty in starkness that Seattle will never have.

Then again, Arizona didn’t have clear running streams right outside my house, with the huge weeping willow looming out of the mist. Those misty mornings are what renew my spirit now – I go out in the dawn, stand on the bridge over the creek, and look at a scene that looks like it comes straight out of a book on Japanese Zen. It’s the most restful natural beauty I’ve ever known.

By: Paul

Paul — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 18:35:50 +0000

Thank you, Meleah! That means a lot to me.

By: meleah rebeccah

meleah rebeccah — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 17:42:03 +0000

Beautiful post.

I love the rain too…but I could never really put my finger on WHY. Thank you for giving me the words to express the reasons why I love the rain.

By: Paul

Paul — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 10:15:08 +0000

Thank you everyone for such interesting and thoughtful responses! And thank you for the compliment, Usha!

By: usha

usha — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 09:50:39 +0000

And oh, thanks for such a beautiful post.

By: usha

usha — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 09:49:53 +0000

For me it is the oily baby leaves on trees after they have shed all they had in the previous months in an effort to renew and reinvent themselves. And I am reminded of what Tom Robbins says about this kind of renewal:
“isn’t it refreshing that trees can undergo periodic change without having a nervous breakdown over it? ”
Isn’t there a lesson for us humans there?

By: ordinary girl

ordinary girl — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 19:34:00 +0000

The mountains are my place of refreshment. I miss them.

By: zenuria

zenuria — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 03:50:01 +0000

I also find rain refreshing and renewing. Especially living in a drought stricken country. Early mornings, too, are glorious for that fresh feeling.
I also find watching birds and animals in the wild gives me that sense that all is right with the world and it will just continue on…