Saturday, April 14, 2007

Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This....


This morning, we woke up to rain. I couldn't wait to get up, make a cup of tea and crawl right back into bed to listen for a while. Right outside my bedroom is wisteria. The aroma crept quietly in the open window.

For twenty minutes or half an hour, life was perfect.

I love rain. Absolutely love it! The sound of it, the smell of it, the color of the sky ~ and I love walking in it. It's a cool rain here this morning. At times it's rather heavy but mostly it's gentle.

One morning a long time ago, I took off for a walk. Dawn was perhaps an hour away. I was staying with my friend, R., and I could see that he was still asleep in his room. The rain was falling gently on the roof. After making a cup of tea as quietly as possible so as to not wake him, I poured it into a commuter cup and stepped outside to the balcony. The rain was warm. The scent of the rain on the plants and flowers surrounding his house was indescribable. To this day, I don't have the words.

The world was quiet. A few people meandered around but it might as well have been just the few of us, alone on the planet. There was a little path near R's house that I liked so much. It was lush and rich with frangipani. It was narrow. I imagined what it must have been like for the original humans, millions of years ago.

The rain got heavier. It pounded on the leaves. Within ten minutes, the wind came. It caused the flowers to sway back and forth. Some leaves fell. In the distance, I could hear frogs croaking. krawwwk krawk. In the far distance, a rooster. Morning was coming.

I continued along. Soon, my hair was drenched. My clothes were drenched. The water poured off my hands as I lifted the cup of tea to my mouth. My shoes were drenched as I walked in the puddles.

With the downpour, my past washed away into the Southeast Asian soil that so willingly accepted and embraced me. My feet took root and I breathed the air of home. The world seemed to shift on its axis. All that was wrong was made right. I continued walking and smiled at nothing ~ and everything.

And, oh yes, I remember the past. I can still draw lessons from it. Sometimes I even feel it. Sometimes it creeps into my consciousness like a malevolent poltergeist. But it rarely stays long enough to rattle its chains in the closet. No ghost can haunt us when we know where we belong.


Peace,


~Chani

19 comments:

Pam said...

Absolutely beautiful, Chani, I could feel your day. And you are so right about those ghosts.

Hel said...

Thank you for sharing your rain story. It made me smile.

This morning I stayed in bed and watched the leaves dancing in a chilly autumn wind. It was great!

Bellezza said...

Rain gives me permission to be still.

S said...

No ghost can haunt us when we know where we belong.

This was beautiful, Chani, and the last sentence was so perfect.

super des said...

That's the best kind of rain-day. Beautiful.

Gobody said...

I have just realized that you haven't done your operation yet, so my heart will be with you next Monday.

I used to love rain when I was a child, looking at the darken sky and smelling the fresh air and knowing that I would soon crawl into my warm bed. That was when sun was taken for granted, but if you live in a country where it rains a lot, rain loses its magic.

Anonymous said...

I wonder, when your frogs sing "krawwwk krawk", do they have the American accent?

meno said...

If you like rain you should move here!

I love walking in the rain too. And oddly enough, swimming in it.

Anvilcloud said...

If it took an earl morning walk for me to feel right with the world, I'd always feel wrong. :)

dmmgmfm said...

I love the rain and I love your rain story. You tell it so well.

LittlePea said...

OH MAN! Beautiful. That brought me to a rainy morning of my own---the day after I moved into my very first apartment. Stomping through the puddles on the beach with my dog...the loud angry sea...the salt air...wonderful day!

I could almost smell the plumeria in that picture.

flutter said...

Chani that was just so gorgeous

heartinsanfrancisco said...

Lovely. I could also smell the rain and leaves and flowers around R's house.

It's such moments that make us know that we are truly alive, and give thanks.

Anonymous said...

When I was little my favorite thing in the world was to put on my yellow rain jacket and rubber galoshes and go play in the rain.

Julie Pippert said...

Beautiful.

I'll be thinking of you this week.

And I've been trying for two days to formulate a response to the clique post.

KGMom said...

What a wonderful description of warm renewing rain--filled with the fragrance of flowers. The photo of the frangipani was lovely and reminded me so of flowers of my youth.
Makes me think of paradise on the earth.

Girlplustwo said...

i too, love the rain. but it's always qualified, given my work.

but i love the rain in southeast asia even more.

Tabba said...

I, too, love the rain.
And being someone who only feels like herself when it is summer - that is an odd statement.

Today, the East is getting rocked by a Nor'Easter. I know that there is flooding in places. I hope everyone is fairing well.

That being said, I have to say that it's cozy inside of our little house. The sound of the rain is just what the four of us need to regenerate. Forces us to take some downtime.

QT said...

I love the smell too - thanks for a beautiful post, Chani.