It is unbelievably raining this morning. Tiny droplets of water falling from the sky. I often wonder if the trails I hike every day gasp with pleasure as the beads drip onto the parched and dusty land. Does the earth feel?
I think it does...I have no proof, of course. Nothing to prove up this claim. It is just a belief of mine. That the earth and all its inhabitants feels similarly...that we all are sentient on some level.
When I plod down those trails with my problems, worries, fears, the earth receives each pounding step. It receives it and it gives me something back for my effort. I get release, calm and a shifting point of view. I trudge and the earth allows.
I have historically not been a fan of rain. Growing up in tropical climates made rain overdone and left me feeling soggy and wet...drowned, in fact, at times. Sometimes in my childhood it would rain so hard that I was sure that the sky would give way the way a leaky ceiling might in a torrential downpour.
But today the rain is light and easy...tapping out its cadence on my roof. Today it feels life giving and welcome. The impending danger that I feel during a harder rain, absent.
Today the rain just feels cleansing and healing on some level. Like my life and surrounding environs could use a good washing with a nice long rinse. Today the rain feels benevolent and kind. Which is kind of a shift for me.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the power of a good storm...but it unnerves me and leaves me feeling out of sorts and bit afraid of what might happen next. And while I love the whipping up of energy towards some larger event, rain has always left me feeling sad. Whether it be a light and happy rain or a depressive downpour, rain has always made me somewhat afraid and a little despondent.
I am a person that easily picks up the emotions of others - I can feel them and sense others disturbance in the force...I am not always right...but I am more right than not. I also can’t always believe the other when they tell me they do not feel a certain way that I see evidence for all around them...perhaps they just do not want me to know that they feel this way. Which is ok, but it mildly irks me because it skews my data.
So today I pick up the earth’s emotional load. The light and happy rain feels good for a change. I am relieved of my need to overshadow the light rain event with all my soggy baggage from the past. I can perhaps more fully feel the “ahhhhh” being released from the earth through the trees, flowers and grasses. A great sighing relief as the water lands and permeates within...
I imagine my favorite part of my hike, a small canyon dotted with trees and vibrantly green regardless of how much rain we get. I think of the tiny rivulets of water running down the steep incline, creating petite erosive tracks in the harden earth. And I think, “yes, this is how the rain cuts, this is how the earth erodes to allow a fresher and newer earth its turn to view the sky.” And so it is with me. I will walk the rain soaked earth today and absorb all I can, washing away the person that existed yesterday to a fresher newer version of myself. One who can see the rain as a gift instead of a burden. And to take my turn looking skyward with gratitude for every single drop.
