December 22, 2014
(This is part of a 365 project
during my 70th year. Each day I will find a gift the day brings, write about it
and illustrate it.)
Rain, rain go away.
Come again some other day. Everyone knows this familiar English nursery
rhyme; some will remember the Peter, Paul and Mary song, It’s Raining (1962) and other musician-created rain music. And it
seems that everyone complains about rain. Like anything, rain is both good and
bad. It gives fish a place to swim, makes the grass grow and brings us drinking
water. It can also seep into basements, make more mowing necessary and ruin
parades.
But I don’t complain about it when I consider that water is
a serious issue for millions of people around the world. As many as 780 million
people lack access to clean water—two ½ times the US population—and 3.4 million people
die each year from a water related disease—nearly equal to the population of
Los Angeles. Even though my well water turns white dishes yellow and makes gray
stains in bathroom fixtures, I am lucky to have access to water that does not
threaten my health.
Rain appeals to my creative and meditative side. I’ve always
been mesmerized watching raindrops run down a window. As a child, I used to
claim individual drops and predict which one would win the race to the bottom.
Now as an adult, I marvel at their beauty as I take close-up photos of the
drops and I embrace its sound as I snuggle inside in my dry bed or with a good
book. It is a calming sound. Life is good, even when it rains. We might as well
accept it since we can’t do anything about the weather.
However, if I lived on HD 189733b, a planet NASA discovered
in 2005, I might complain about the glass rain in 4500 mph winds.
For further reading on water issues and glass rain, see these links:
You can read my other posts on this project here:
Lovely,tx
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ron. Today is a beautiful foggy day.
ReplyDelete