Day 244 Touched

August 10, 2015

(If we live with an open and grateful attitude, every day will bring a gift. This is one of 365 gifts during the year I turned 70.)

Raindrops are often compared to tears—an assumption that rain is a sad thing just as tears are the product of sorrow. For me, rainy days are an invitation to wake up slowly, to read all day, to listen to a gentle rhythm and to soak in saturation. Colors become vivid on rainy days, perhaps because highlights and shadows do not need to compete with one another and color can relax and be its deepest. 

Everything takes on a special quality in the rain. The tiny-leafed weeds on my front lawn (lawn is used loosely because there is not a lot of grass) reach out and hold raindrops that sparkle their brightest in the absence of the sun. Each one is a sparkling world by itself and a cluster of hundreds becomes a galaxy. There is astounding beauty in its pattern. 

Those whose souls are dampened with melancholy might see each sparkle as a fractured shard of glass but I see each as a dazzling jewel. Those who have tears, let them fall among the jewels and become another sun in the crown of the universe. That which has fallen reflects brightness upward. It is a magical time when rain joins sky and earth and makes it possible for them to touch. 

My gift today is a sparkling universe of raindrops.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~­ 

> Day 234: Attitude

You can find links to my other posts on this project here:

http://bjschupp.blogspot.com/2014/12/365-gifts.html

Day 174 Fluid Dance

June 1, 2015

(This is part of a 365 project during my 70^th years where I write and illustrate a blog on each day’s gift.)

There is something about an afternoon rain, rolling with thunder, lightning and the smell of wet earth. It is exciting, soothing and rejuvenating all wrapped in one package. As a child, I used to sit in my bedroom window to watch storms. For some reason, I never associated rain with sadness like most poets do. A rain storm awakens the senses—touch of tiny pin points of rain on the skin, sound of deep-throated  thunder, sight of lightning flashes silhouetting whatever lies between it and me, taste of raindrops like beansprouts and rich smell of earth. Oh, there’s nothing like the smell of wet earth to arouse primal feelings. I always say that spring has truly arrived when earthworms crawl out onto the sidewalk after a rain. 

Today I was fascinated by raindrops striking my porch railing again and again and again and again. My spirit soaked up the sound and watched this liquid dance. Sheets of rain poured down first perpendicularly and then angled at 45 degrees, depending on the ever-changing and swirling wind. Water drops shot down from above, allegro against the wooden railing and they bounced up allongé in every direction. Some danced pas de deux up and away, one leap after another. If I looked closely, I could see the rapid path of each drop, an energetic dance on a wooden stage.

How could anyone equate this dynamic performance with sadness? It was full of joy. 

My gift today is a water ballet.

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~­

> Day 175: Trifolium

You can find links to my other posts on this project here:

http://bjschupp.blogspot.com/2014/12/365-gifts.html

Day 126 Wet Dreams

April 14, 2015

(This is part of a 365 project during my 70th year where I write and illustrate a blog on each day's gift.)

Raindrops run downward, becoming rays for a rising sun.

As a child, I used to love thunderstorms. In my mind, they trumpeted excitement and adventure and I would sit at the window, soaking in the booms and flashes. As an adult, I find myself too prone to worry about falling trees, lightning strikes and all the bad stuff. However, both the young me and the older me love the sound of gentle all-day rain. The young me would curl up with a good book or play games on our family’s front row house porch with my sister in the summertime. 

This morning I awoke to the sound of raindrops and smiled. The pitter-patter mix with the backyard bird songs was music to my ears. I fixed myself a cup of one of the two expensive jasmine globe green tea balls from China that I bought for $1.68. A rainy morning deserves elegant taste and a good book.  Even our cat Misty wanted to go out on this soggy day and lap up the rain—literally. She seemed to relish the fresh pools that formed on the deck. She came back inside, purring constantly. 

Sound therapy is a big market these days, especially the sound of rain. Some say it is the white noise that makes rain so relaxing. A primordial sound massages the brain’s alpha rhythm. Or perhaps it has something to do with how rain mutes colors and sounds when harsh sunlight simply offers too much information. Research shows that nature is restorative and positive for mental health. I believe this. It made a purr in my mind today.

My gift today was a liquid brain massage.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~­

This is brilliant. Generate your own rain noise!

http://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/rainNoiseGenerator.php

> Day 127 Bloom

You can find links to my other posts on this project here:
http://bjschupp.blogspot.com/2014/12/365-gifts.html

Day 13 - Rainy Day

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:

http://thewaterproject.org/health

http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/water/

http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2013/11jul_cobaltblue/

 ~~~~~~~~~~

> DAY 14 34th Street
 

You can read my other posts on this project here:

http://bjschupp.blogspot.com/2014/12/365-gifts.html

Weather On the Road

Rain! Again!

Looks like a black and white and gray picture day.

Danes ride bicycles, rain or shine.

We're hoping for sun tomorrow as we drive north, up along the coast to our next stop with a Servas traveler, Janice, who stayed with us several years ago.