What do you suppose would happen if it rained up?
I think there was a song like that once upon a time.
By that, I mean that the rain would come from the ground and flow upward toward the sky.
We would have to wear umbrellas on our feet. Would there be windshield wipers on our tires?
Thankfully, God made it where it rains down from heaven.
Thought about these things on that long, rainy weekend a while back.
I like rain.
I like the soothing, gentle sound it makes when it pitter-patters down on the earth. I especially love the lullaby it makes as it cascades down on a tin roof — or in my case splatters down on the carport and puddles under the eaves.
There are some challenges. For one, umbrellas sometimes turn inside out and they are the devil to get back in working order. My shoes leak and my socks get wet. I know, I know. I should buy new shoes, you say. Easy for you to say. I wear size “sasquatch” so it is hard to go shoe shopping. And, no matter how good your rain gear is, if you go outside and it is raining, there is a good chance you are going to get wet.
I also love the aroma it brings — especially after a long dry spell. I’ve also been known to dance around in it and play in the mud puddles in my childhood years. One story, from my four year old self said that I pulled my great-grandmother, Anna Tyre Rogers, through the puddles with me. The tale is I took her by surprise and she was not quick enough to keep me from the mud hole and that’s how we ended up there. In my heart of hearts, though, I suspect she liked playing in that remnant of rain, too.
That rainy Saturday found me with a rare day off at home.
I watched the sheets of rain come down from the comfort of my recliner in my living room.
I would prefer to sit on my porch and watch it rain, but alas my porch is too short and the wind blew the rain in under the eaves. That, and it was also only in the 50s Saturday after we had been spoiled with early spring-like weather in the 80s.
I could occasionally hear a rumble of thunder, even as it began to cool off.
Rainy days are lazy days and relaxing days all the same.
That is, except for when I was changing out my 2022 bills and getting my filing cabinet ready for the new year. The new year is almost two months old and I just now got around to doing that. It has something to do with the fact I didn’t want to and put it off as long as I could. It also wasn’t relaxing when I was trying to balance my check book that day and I was off by 30 cents. The bank said I had 30 cents less than I showed I had. I never did find it.
I hate math almost as much as I love rain.
I soon became exasperated with the two tasks and decided I would read.
I finished reading “Truman” by David McCullough, a biography of our 33rd President Harry S. Truman. It is a superb read. My Grandma Jones often held up Harry Truman as an example of the greatness of America.
“He was a nobody with nothing from nowhere,” she would say, “and he became the President of the United States.”
That is the beauty of this country. You can use your hard work and talents to take you as far as you can go.
Or, if you want to, you can just take it easy and listen to it rain.
This particular day, I decided to do just that.
I lay in bed with the comforter pulled up and just listened to the sound of the rain. It was a great sedative and soon I found myself off in blissful slumber.
I awoke refreshed and, well, awake.
Rain gives me plenty of time to think and clears my mind and relaxes my soul.
I encourage you to try it sometime.
You’ll be glad you did.
• Jason Deal is a staff writer for The Blackshear Times. Reach him at [email protected].
