The richness of the rain
The English climate on full display at the Tower of London, August 2005
“The richness of the rain made me feel safe and protected; I have always considered the rain to be healing—a blanket—the comfort of a friend.”
— Douglas Coupland
“…I will praise the English climate till I die—even if I die of the English climate.”
— G. K. Chesterton
As much as I love the sunshine, I have to admit that I also love rain — just occasionally, and preferably if I don’t have to be out in it too much. I agree with Coupland’s thought that it creates a feeling of safety and protection, as long as it’s not accompanied by lashing winds that get me soaking wet and chilled to the bone. In the warm weather (which I hope will be here soon) I love walking under an umbrella in the soft rain. Staying indoors with a cup of tea and a good book is even more appealing.
Almost everywhere, springtime brings some rainy days. I hope you will find in the rain what Coupland found: the healing comfort of a friend.
Happy birthday today to a very special person who has always loved rainy days!
One year ago today:
Defeat Despair 
Rain is like blessing from above. It brings colors to the sunshine. I remember Bob Marley said this “Some people feel the rain. Others just get wet.”
Sarvjit, I like that quote! I had not heard it before. In Hawaii, it used to literally bring colors to the sunshine, since it would often be rainy and sunny at the same time, and we’d get these huge beautiful rainbows. Sometimes double ones too.
Yes, double ones are rare but beautiful. You’re lucky to have a sight of them. Nature puts simple colors that carry massive emotions.
Juila , I remember”Rainy Season over in Germany. The First time in September 1981 it was raining. I believe in October also it’s rainy season. I also experienced alot of rain after I arrived in Hawaii in 1992. One time it was so so depressing as it rained everyday for 14 days straight.( and we have the nerve to complain about”driving around the whole island in a circle lol) Now can I get those songs out my system, I wanna go outside in the rain 2 I wish it would rain 3 “It never rains in Southern California and last “Rainy Mondays.( You Google the artist I did”most of the hard work with my head swimming with music lol. be blessed
Raynard, my friend Amy told me how often the weather in Germany was gloomy while she lived there, and I was surprised; I had always thought of it as sunny although I don’t know why. I do remember those “monsoon” days in Hawaii! Wow, sometimes it felt as if we would wash away. But the rainbows there were amazing. There are a lot of great rain songs – of the ones you mentioned this one is an old favorite of mine that might bring back some memories. I guess I am getting old but I miss those days of what sounded like REAL music to me. Lady GaGa and Jay-Z and most of the current stars just don’t do it for me. I also love the Carpenters’ Rainy Days and Mondays, and the songs linked in my post from one year ago.
I too love rainy days. It always makes me feel like putting everything else aside and curling up on the sofa with a good book, after I make a delicious pot of soup. :o)
Patricia, I just LOVE soup! That’s one of my favorite parts about winter, though I eat it year round. But there’s nothing like a nice pot of soup on a cold day. In fact I plan to have tomato basil soup at La Madeleine tonight! My favorite! With all the wonderful choices they have there, I always end up going for a big bowl of soup with crusty bread.
Happy Birthday to your special person! ♥
Thank you! I’ll pass the greeting on to him. 🙂
Who wants to sleep in a cold -wet blanket? Something hypnotic about watching rain drops falling into puddles. So I will go with book and tea and watch the rain falling out the window.
Definitely the blanket aspect would have to be figurative; not much is as miserable as being in soaking wet clothes. I love watching rain falling into puddles and rolling down windowpanes. Also the sound of it in the leaves. It’s not too bad getting out in it when it’s warm, but when it’s chilly, I certainly prefer indoors with the tea and the book and the sound of raindrops falling. Maybe even some distant thunder for good measure.
A very special guy, indeed, with a birthday today!! That’s probably the best tribute he could imagine! 🙂
Good, I hope so. Wish we could all be together for his birthday, but maybe soon!
As a member of the American Chesterton Society-love the quote.
Thanks, I need to read Chesterton myself. I seem to remember reading that he was an influence on C. S. Lewis, my personal favorite.
I can so relate to all of the comments today, having lived both in Germany and Hawaii! In Hawaii, as you probably know Julia, they call the afternoon rain liquid gold. And yes, Germany is very wet most of the year — also why their agriculture is so lucrative. One of the towns we lived in was Regensburg — rainy town! But indeed it is one of God’s gifts, does provide the healing comforting feeling, and makes the sunny days even more pleasant. We had such little rain in El Paso that we got tired of every day being sunny 🙂 !! Blessings so all.
I had never heard that lovely term for afternoon rain in Hawaii — or if I had, I have forgotten about it now. But it’s perfect. Yes, the lovely countryside in Germany shows what a lot of rain can do to improve an area. I think I could endure the rain if it was falling on Bavaria!! The Bavarian Alps are so beautiful! West Texas is maybe even more dry than Arizona and California, but that’s just my impression from driving through it a couple of times. I know San Antonio was way too hot for me, though I loved it in most every other way. I’m happy we have been able to live different places and experience different climates. Thanks for visiting here, and for your comments!
Happy Birthday from Bill and Sheila! You know who you are and we have a pretty good idea. “SPECIAL” was the giveaway. We hope you have a wonderful birthday dinner. 🙂
Hi Sheila, thanks for the good wishes! And you are probably right or at least close about the identity, but you may be confusing two people, both of whom are extra-special to Jeff and me! BTW I am having horrible computer problems so if you don’t hear from me for awhile, don’t worry – I think my access will be very limited until I get this fixed, and I don’t know how long that might take! I hope everyone will “hang in there” with me while I try to troubleshoot.
Our grandson, Aaron, is home from UCSB for Spring Break. Yesterday, he called to ask me to lunch. It was raining, so I asked if we should play in the rain like when he was younger. He told me he did not have rain boots anymore. I loved basking in the memories w/ him!
(P.S. This quarter was all “A’s”; no A minuses this time—he added)
WAHOO! states this grandmother!
WOW, it is amazing to me to think of your grandson in college! Congrats on the wonderful grades!!! And when you mentioned “playing in the rain” it brought back memories – I used to love to do that when I was very young. It seems like it was a rare privilege, though. Our next door neighbors had a giant clam shell under their downspout and I would love it when the rain turned it into a gushing fountain! Somehow it doesn’t surprise me to know that you liked to play in the rain with Aaron when he was young. I’m sure it’s a precious memory to him too.
I was going to add this story to one of my other comments about “rainy season:” the other rainy day this year was a minimum day (= no morning recess), I was subbing a “challenging” fourth grade class. The rain really started coming down at about the time I had to take them to lunch; of course, we were about as far away from the MPR as could be. The kids WOULD NOT stay in line, WOULD NOT try to stay under the eaves of the other buildings as we passed, they were much too interested in having the rain completely soak them. At first I thought they were being obstinate, but I eventually realized that they were truly enjoying the rain and it made a difference in my attitude as well.
I’m sure they wanted to take FULL ADVANTAGE of the excuse to get wet. I love that about kids, how they love to get wet (at least most of them do). What we as adults find irritating and uncomfortable is often something exciting to them. When we were little, we used to beg to “play in the sprinkler” (turn on the lawn sprinkler and run around in it getting wet). It seems like Mama usually said no but when she didn’t it was quite a treat. For kids in a dry climate, rain would be almost as much fun as snow.
Yes, the sound of rain is very comforting to those of us in Oklahoma. Our son and his wife have a ranch in the western part of the state. They had several wells drilled in hopes of finding water for the cattle. They were afraid that they would only strike oil. Unfortunately they found neither.
By the way, I really enjoy your blog and pictures. I occasionally share both with a small Cursillo group who meet in our house regularly. Thanks so much for them. Our prayers are with you and your family.
Blessings, Cliff
Cliff, I’m so happy to know you enjoy the blog enough to share it with others! We need and appreciate your prayers. We are feeling blessed to find ourselves in a more hopeful place than we were one year ago. I’ve heard it can be quite challenging to find water even in areas of the country that are not as dry. I’ve heard stories of people having to drill repeatedly before finding water, or maybe never finding it. Our home in southeastern Virginia is near water so a lot of people drill wells to have a separate water supply just for lawns and gardens, since we pay two different companies each month to handle wastewater. Apparently people with wells don’t have to do that. I imagine that rain is like music in the ears of most people who live in the southwest.
Much rain in Yorktown? Close to a beach? We were looking at a map last night and Savannah Georgia looks like an interesting local, or Charleston, or Virginia Beach. My wife’s nephews are in Norfolk and Richmond areas. Both grew up in San Francisco and say they are now on the “right coast”. Kanus works for the Navy Base at Norfolk.
We are about two years from full retirement age so time to start looking. But Atlanta would be first choice.
More rain today which is hampering again- efforts of the rescue workers at the mudslide- now thought to be greatest natural disaster in Washington State History.
Michael, “right coast” as in “the correct one” or “not the left one?” 🙂 Yorktown gets just the right amount of rain, I think. We have a beach right in town on the York River (look for photos here sometime; I’m sure to post some sooner or later) and are an easy drive to Virginia Beach (about 45 minutes from south York County) and the Outer Banks of North Carolina (about 3 hours, give or take, depending on where you want to go). If we did not have Matt’s needs to consider, we might choose to retire in Atlanta, where there are more tax breaks on retirement pay. BUT Matt would have to go to the bottom of another wait list for any kind of services there, so that doesn’t seem possible. We honeymooned in Charleston and loved it, and have heard lots of good things about it. Sheila and Bill seem to like South Carolina. I have STILL never been to Savannah but have heard it’s lovely.
I heard the distressing news about the mudslide today, and the mounting number of casualties. It certainly is tragic and I don’t remember ever hearing of a mudslide this disastrous ever in this country, anywhere. Very sad.
Did you see the pictures on Yahoo yesterday of the Haiku stairs on Oahu? Terrifying. But we did hike up the valley to their base- close to Le’ia.
I didn’t see the photos and don’t remember ever hearing about the Haiku stairs, but after reading your comment, I looked it up and WOW, amazing! Here’s a blog with some detailed info and photos. I don’t think I could ever get up the nerve to do that hike but it’s fabulous to read about. Thanks for letting me know about it.
Yea we used to drive Highway three from Kaneohe- the highway you can see in some picts. below the stairs- and we got a distant view of the stairs. I would never make it up the first 20 feet or so.
Record rains here for March and yesterday the road in front of our place looked like a stream and gutters overflowed.
I am not sure why they call it the “right coast.”
I have come to love the “right coast” but for the longest time I was so totally homesick for the west coast that I couldn’t appreciate it here – however, there are advantages to both. If you do retire to Atlanta, there will no doubt be things you would miss, but there is much to love here.
Thanks for the link to Haiku stairs walk. We did the Kailua Pill Box hike a couple of times.
I don’t remember hearing of that one either. All this makes me want to go back to Hawaii! For a vacation, not to stay. 🙂
That hike–Pillbox– is also on the link you sent me.
I didn’t notice that one. I’ll have to go back and check. Some of these hikes are best enjoyed online for people my age! 🙂
I’ve always loved the rain, and like you, enjoy walking in it. We’ve had about 5 inches season to date (we normally have 14 inches). I’m happy to report we’re expecting more of it tomorrow and maybe Friday.
I am hoping the rain shows up for you! My memories are probably off, but during our years in CA it seems to me like it had about quit raining by the end of March most years. “April showers bring May flowers” so I wish you some nice rains through the month if possible.