Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life. (John Updike)
Here in Kentucky we’ve been blessed with abundant rain this summer. Every day kind of rain. Steamy like the air has moisture you can almost wring out of it even when the sun is shining and the clouds are holding in their raindrops. Sometimes it rains at the same time the sun shines as though Mother Nature is trying to squeeze in every bit of weather she can before the day is over.
We need rain. I live out here on a farm where if it doesn’t rain things begin to look bad. That happened a few years ago when our summer was especially dry. No rain for weeks. The fields turned brown. The cows had to search for grass. Some farmers had to start feeding hay way earlier than normal. People that make their money mowing yards got a long vacation. That year it was so dry we were asked not to water our yards or gardens. We had to worry about the rivers and reservoirs getting too low to supply enough water to residents.
That’s not a problem this year. Plenty of water here although I hear from my Facebook friends in other areas of the USA where they are having one of those dry years when rain clouds are needed and where rain is on all the churches’ prayer lists.
Let It Rain
The best thing one can do when it’s raining is let it rain. (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)
Unfortunately, rain is not something we can share. We can’t send our extra rain clouds to California. No, the weather comes. We talk about it, but we can’t change it.
If we could, I might have put a hold on one of the showers today. I looked at my weather app on my phone. It said 30% chance of rain in an hour. Just clouds right then. Plenty of time for me to get in my walk. Oscar tried to tell me. He watched me walk out of the yard down the road toward the hay field where we walk. He didn’t come. I waited a few minutes and decided his arthritis was probably bothering him and he had decided to stay in the yard. Unusual, but the hot weather has been hard for him. But when I got to the hay field, there he was coming down the road. I could almost see him sighing and thinking if she’s going, I have to go too. So we make our way around the back field and it begins to sprinkle. Hmm. We’re a half mile from the house. Then the sprinkle becomes a steady rain. No thunder, so we step under a maple tree. Not bad for five minutes or so, but then the steady rain becomes a downpour and the maple tree umbrella begins to drip. So since we’re getting wet either way, I just head the rest of the way around the field. No sense trying to take a shortcut now. I’m not sure Oscar agreed with that thinking either, but he soldiered along with me. It quit raining before we got to the house and somewhere Mother Nature was chuckling at my soaked clothes and hair. And Oscar was saying, I tried to tell you.
More Sunday winners to come in my August Book Giveaway
You still have a chance to win one of my books in my August Book Giveaway. I’ll pick a new winner this Sunday. Last Sunday Emily won and since she’s already read my books, she had me send Scent of Lilacs to her friend, Julie. Books do make fun gifts. But if you like to e-read, you don’t have to win to get Scent of Lilacs. It’s still a free download until the end of the month.Here’s the Kindle link.
But if you want your name in my drawing hat to have a chance to win an autographed copy of one of my books for yourself or a friend, just leave a comment. Any comment will do, but if you want, you can tell me something you like about rain or don’t like. I enjoyed all your butterfly stories on Sunday’s post.
Did you play out in the rain when you were a kid? I did, but I remember it being more fun than I had today walking in the rain. 🙂
As always, thanks for reading.
Comments 29
I like to fall asleep to rain, too. But sometimes I get wakened up by rain, or thunder. Rain is refreshing. Do you remember the hymn: There will be showers of blessing?
I don’t playing in the rain as a child, but I remember my children doing it and they sure loved it! The bare feet, stomping through the wet grass, heading to the over flow pipe on the pond. Sometimes they would catch lots of little fish as they came through the pipe where they had been sucked down with the whirlpool of water.
Author
Sounds as if your kids had big fun playing in the rain, Diana. I did play in the rain when I was a kid. As didn’t have water hoses or access to abundant water so playing in the rain was a treat for us. Other than that we had to go to the creek to have water fun.
I like the clean smell that the rain leaves in the air. I don’t like being out in it so much anymore, especially in sandals! I also enjoy watching the hummingbirds take their baths and run to the feeders during a rain.
Author
Hi, Sharon. Great to have you drop by. You can certainly do some sliding around trying to walk in rain with sandals on. Great way to break the toe holders on flipflops. I always think when I see birds at the feeders that it’s going to rain a while.
Words Spoken True is the story I would like if I win! I have always loved rain. I remember when I was a young mom and ran down to the corner to the grocer for milk ~ I was told I just wanted an excuse to run in the rain barefoot ~ could be right. I especially like the fresh smell and the cleansing breeze in your face as the rain pelts down. Even a gentle rain is refreshing. Ah, rain.
I also know about drought. We lost our farm when I was twelve and moved to a city where my dad worked at a defense plant building airplanes.
Kathleen ~ Lane Hill House
Author
I like the picture of you, a young mom, running barefoot to the store for milk. Seems a great image for a story, Kathleen. My character in my work in progress has been out in the rain several times, but not with a joyful attitude. That might have to wait for a different character although she does meet a great looking guy in one of those rainstorms. 🙂
It must have been hard on your family to lose your farm. Sunshine and shadows. 🙁
My favorite thing to do in the rain in the summer is to go fishing (as long as there is no lightning).
Author
Some people say the fish bite better in the rain, Donna, but since I don’t like to go fishing anytime, I’ll just keep walking in the rain. My aunt used to say she liked to go shopping in the rain, but that was back before malls. I think she liked walked around with an umbrella.
I love the rain and especially walking in the rain. I find it very serene and peaceful. I have even been known to run around my cul-de-sac with my kids during some nice summer rains a few years back.
Author
I’m guessing the kids think that is wonderful fun to have Mom out there playing in the rain with them, Joanna. If I’d had some kids with me on my walk instead of an unhappy dog, I might have had more fun. LOL.
I like to watch the weather building up to the rain in the summer. Big dark clouds all around, the wind picks up, then those first big drops come pounding down, and the smell is wonderful! I don’t like getting caught out in it though, I rather watch it from a dry house, ha!
Author
The odd thing, or at least it feels odd to me, Connie, about getting caught out in the rain is that the rain burns my eyes and of course my glasses don’t have windshield washers so I can hardly see to begin with. So yes, inside and watching out the windows those storm building up is definitely preferable.
I like hearing rain on a metal roof.
Author
I used to go to sleep to that when I was a kid and sleeping in an upstairs room of an old farm house, Ola. Nothing like it.
I love rain, I love to hear it on the roof when I am going to sleep. I also love to sit on the porch and watch it rain, but this year has been so difficult for my husband, as he mows commercially for a living. The same people whos yard it is raining in, calls and asks why he hasn’t mowed their yard yet. Oh well, this too shall pass and we will probably be wishing for rain instead of dry weather, or worse yet, SNOW!
Author
I hadn’t thought about the lawn mowing people being TOO busy with all the rain, Lisa. For one thing it’s hard to mow when it’s raining all the time. My son used to mow a few yards when he was in school. Thank goodness, he mostly mowed for sweet older ladies who liked him so much they didn’t fuss too much if he was a little late getting to their yards.
And that is very true about us wishing for different weather no matter what’s happening.
Living on a farm rain to means is a blessing for it means grass for the cows and gay for the winter….there are times though we have too much at one time though lol and mud therefore is a pain on a farm lol
Author
Trish, mud can be especially tiresome when you have cows that have to be in the same area day in and day out. When I was a kid, I sometimes lost my boot in the mud around the barn and had to balance precariously on one foot while I pulled the lost boot out of the mud. You hunted for rocks to step on then. But you are very right about the need for rain to keep the crops growing and the cows fed.
I love sun showers. I don’t like dreary rainy days or bad storms with thunder and lightning. Three times lightning struck so close to our house it blew out our security camera and monitor, years before that it blew out our ceiling fan and smoked a little and another time it struck a tree in our yard and split it. I’ve heard people like to sit outside during these storms and watch – me, when I’m alone, I’ll hide in the basement.
Author
Sounds as if the basement is the place to be in a thunderstorm at your house, Karen. You’ve had some near misses or maybe not misses. I’ll have to write about the worst strike I witnesses sometime. But I have also seen the exploded trees out in the field and was very glad I wasn’t anywhere around when that happened. And I often remember the young girl in a nearby town who was raking in her yard with a storm not even really close and was struck by lightning. It’s nothing to mess with.
I have Hibiscus plants on my porch. They are fun to watch. One day they will look like they are dying , then although the day looks gloomy, the rain will come and the next day their beautiful red blossoms will appear. It reminds me of myself. I will be totally down and exhausted and then either the sun comes out or I get “watered” from studying God’s word or some other happening that appears to be a divine intervention. Then, (although I can’t say my appearance changes into one of beauty( I do feel vibrant and full of energy , unlike my demeanor on the previous day!
Author
What a great devotional thought, Pat. We do need watering in various ways although we might be opposite of the hibiscus in that the sun coming out might lift our spirits more than the rain. Then again, the hibiscus certainly needs both and so do we. Thank you for sharing that with us. It is a bit of “watering” for me to read your comment. And you have to remember that the best kind of beauty shines from within.
MY CAT, SHEBA, IS MY WEATHER “MAN”. SEVERAL MINUTES BEFORE IT RAINS, THUNDERS, OR LIGHTNING COMES I SEE HER DOING AN “ARMY
CRAWL” TO GET IN A CLOSET OR UNDER A BED. I TELL MY HUSBAND, IT IS GOING TO RAIN OUR WEATHERMAN JUST WENT UNDER THE BED, COUCH OR IN THE CLOSET. HER LITTLE BELLY ALMOST DRAGS THE FLOOR SHE IS CRAWLING SO LOW. AND……SURE ENOUGH, 5-10 MINUTES LATER WE HEAR A CLAP OF THUNDER, SEE THE SKY LIGHT UP AND DOWN IT COMES!
I LOVE THE RAIN. WE HAVE 3 SKY LIGHTS IN OUR ROOF AND I LAY ON THE COUCH AND LISTEN TO THE RAIN PELTING THE GLASS SKYLIGHT.
WHEN WE WATCH A MOVIE, AND DID YOU EVER NOTICE ALMOST EVERY MOVIE HAS A RAIN SCENE? MY HUSBAND WILL SAY, “THERE’S A PATTY JO RAIN”!!! YES, I LOVE THE RAIN!
Author
Great story, Pat. Oscar is like your cat. He gets antsy about the thunder way before I know it’s coming. That might have been why he didn’t want to walk yesterday. I didn’t hear thunder but he might have in the distance. It would be interesting to just for a minute hear what dogs and cats hear. Probably not longer than a minute or two because it has to be much different than what we hear. It could be those skylights that have your cat so nervous. LOL. When I was a kid we had a tin roof and no insulation and I slept upstairs. The rain on the roof made for great sleeping.
The book I’m finishing up right now has several rain scenes. Maybe it’ll make a movie. 🙂
I love the rain when I can set in my recliner and either read or take a nap.
Author
Reading while it’s raining outside does sound good, Linda. I’ve actually been writing about my character getting caught out in the rain, so maybe it was good that I got a soaking yesterday. 🙂 Worked right along with my story.
Always love your posts, Miss Ann! Rain and milder temps are quite nice in August, for sure!
Author
We’ve had the plenty of the rain, Melanie, but not the cooler temps. The weather guys say that’s on the way for us next week. And I do appreciate your kind words about my blog posts. It’s fun to read your comments.