"A Little Rain Must Fall..."

“For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining is let it rain.”

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

When I was young, I hated it when it rained.  I was beyond disappointed that I couldn't go outside. Well, actually, I did NOT want to subjugate myself to getting my clothes and shoes wet.  It bothered me immensely.  This seems ironic, seeing as though I spent a great deal of time and still do spend a great deal of time in the tub!  I digress.  The rain made me feel sad and confined.  I hated feeling restricted.  As a kid, rain signified a lack of freedom.  A free spirit can not be confined.  I was in fact very hard to hold back from just about everything.  I am pretty sure that because of my impetuous nature, my mother was in a continual state of panic.

Since our self-quaratine, social distance, has made me think back to those years as a child.  I was never one to be happy to stay in one place.  Now, my saving grace and my sanity lies in walking three to five, maybe six miles each day, except if it rained.  That all changed today.  For weeks, months, even years, my body has become increasingly happier in movement. When the weather was sunny and warm and the air was clear, I was out moving. Moving the body matters.  Realizing that my body craves movement made me brave the elements today.  I walked...in the rain.

I put on my best rain gear and my best walking shoes and decided to go to one of my favorite parks and walk.  My body, for the first time was dictating what my mind already knew was necessary.  Get outside. See nature.  Embrace the rain.  

I was amazed at how today, the rain became secondary.  With every mile I walked, my body was not troubled by the rain.  I noticed that the robins flying overhead and on the ground looking for tasty treasures, didn't mind either.  It was cool but not too cool.  The rain, I found was NOT holding me back but energizing me.  I heard a dove call out to me.  I walked by the ponds at the park looking for more action from the wildlife.  It was quiet, except for the robins.  It was peaceful.  I walked another two miles, then three, then four.  

I realized today that as a kid, I was sadly mistaken about rain.  Rain is cleansing.  Rain feeds us and nurtures our world in the most astounding ways. Rain is no longer the inconvenience I thought it was as a kid.  Rain is life. I will always love the sun.  The sun energizes us too but in a much different way.  The sun can burn you as well.  Rain in infinite abundance, can be harmful too but only because it has no place to go.  We need to let the rain go places.  It needs freedom or we suffer the consequences. The rain sounds a great deal like me.