Rain.

I wrote this post last week when the weather matched the emotions rolling around in me and my family. Life sometimes will make you hit your knees in earnest prayer causing you to pray harder than you have ever had to before. Although news came after this post that was like the first ray of sunshine after a hurricane the storm still rages. The story is not over.  But with all storms and stories an ending will come...

It's cold. The skies are covered with the gray clouds of rain. It's been saturnine all week. Rainy, cold, gloomy, rainy, cold, gloomy, rainy… Yet, it is still so incredibly beautiful. The bright white clouds that reflect the sunshine underneath are intermingled with the rain clouds in a beautiful waltz of dark and light. Rain smells like summer. You know. The smell of earth and heaven mixed together. Yeah, summer. Its coming. I always find it amazing how different Rain is during fall and winter and spring and summer. As though each season has to present us with its own unique Rain.  Spring Rain is cold and sings of the beginning of life. Summer Rain is full of memories of sun bathing and water fights and night games. This is Rain’s favorite season.  She likes to sprinkle down memories of times long forgotten but not swept away.  Fall Rain is cool and refreshing. It wipes away the stickiness of the summer heat and prepares the earth for a long awaited cleansing. It speaks of campfires and roasted marshmallows and baseballs games under field lights. Winter Rain is biting. Yet at the same time it turns into these magical little white flakes as it falls to the earth in a blanket of white. White. The color of purity, of innocence, of perfection. Rain is life and life is Rain. Each season blessing us with goodness and happiness. But like everything else, Rain has its dark side. It can turn violent and ravenous and deadly all at once. What were just moments before of blissful cleansing gifts of Rain, has now turned into a storm of seismic proportions.  Sheets of glass begin falling.  As you quickly begin gathering your items to run to safety, the storm becomes stronger and more demanding. You hold up your arm in protection and feverishly begin pushing yourself out of the storm to safety.  Suddenly the sleeting rain turns into frozen bullets that pelt your skin at such a rapid pace that it causes you to fall to your hands and knees as you claw your way to a safe haven. It can’t get much worse than this.  You can make it.  Unfortunately, like life, Rain has its own agenda.  What was once frozen bullets, has now turned into frozen fractals of glass - cutting, slicing, ripping your skin apart.  There is no where to turn.  No answers for your questions.  It is torture at its finest.  You’re lost and untrusting because you know at any moment Rain can turn on you and become an enormous hurricane that is going to toss you, tumble you, drop you, pick you up again and throw you so far pass normal that you won’t even know what normal is anymore.  And still no answers.  Nothing concrete.  And the thunder continues to roll and the lightening strikes.  The storm rages on.  You are unable to move anywhere and you have to just sit and wait.  Sit and wait. Sit and wait. You cling to any shred of hope Rain will throw your way… 

To be continued...