I Love the Smell of Rain

Day 12--"I Love the Smell of Rain"

I Love the Smell of Rain

I love the smell of rain
early in the morning and late at night
while I am trying to fall asleep.

The patterings in the mornings lull me
awake, soothe the nightmares of the night,
encourage me to contemplate
what rain really means, should mean,
to all of us on the high plains
with little moisture.

Rain is life—life to plants, animals,
the ecosystem, our very lives,
a sense of future and food, and longevity …

When it finally rains, some of us like to stand
outside, heads up, mouths open, and sip the rain,
letting it moisturize our tongues and lips,
sometimes gulping it when it patters down
hard and fast and allowing it to water our faces.

In some hot spots of the world,
the children race outside
when the clouds clap together
and spew its watery tears to the ground.

These little ones stand beneath the water spouts,
happy, excited, ecstatic, wait for the water
to gurgle through the rusty pipes,
anticipate it crashing down on them
on them in streams of pure pleasure.

Then, the dancing begins.

Others down the street use the rainwater
as showers, cleaning the dirge of life
and poverty from their bodies.

Rains are like that.

They cleanse and renew and replenish—
our streams, our lakes, our ponds,
our reservoirs, our states of mind.

It is no wonder we pray often for rain
to come to join us, to fulfill our dreams,
and fill us with hope and possibilities.

I love the smell of rain as it fills my nostrils
with the smells of life, my own presence,
the existence of someone Greater than all of us.