Tag: rain

Monday – Funday

Hi all. We’re fine here, just lots of rain and intermittent random power outages. It’s a soggy Monday in these parts. Here are two fun activities I discovered over the weekend. First, Google “cat” and then on the right side of the screen, by the word cat, you will see an orangish paw print. Click on it and then click again all over your screen. Cute, right? When you quickly bore of that bit of fun, try this: look up various “Octopus eyebrows” tutorials. Are things getting a little stale on your face? Is it time for a new look? Want a distraction from wrinkles? Octopus eyebrows. Google it. It’s a thing.

Yesterday, I watched Melinda French Gates interview Oprah Winfrey and Gayle King about their incredible lifelong friendship. Melinda is doing these interviews with various public figures, because she herself is turning “60” and she wants inspiration from other women who are around this middle stage in life. Oprah said that Maya Angelou told her that the 50s are a time when you become who you were meant to be. Oprah says if you don’t feel like you are there yet, you should listen carefully to the whispers of your heart. What’s whispering to you?

Author Heather Havrilesky claims in a recent column, that one of her older mentors told her as she turned 50 that she is entering “the most luminous time of her life.” If you are not feeling illuminated, listen closer to your whispers. It is time to allow yourself to fully become who you were meant to be.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:

2574. What is your favorite style of architecture?

Bloodstones

The other day, I said to my daughter, “Oh, it smells like rain.” And she agreed with me, but I doubt either one of us could accurately describe what rain smells like. In Australia, in 1964, scientists coined the name “petrichor” for the refreshing, cleansing smell of rain, after a particularly dry season. Petrichor comes from two Greek words meaning “blood of the gods” and “stone.”

Last night, my husband and I were watching a show about nature and it showed that elephants have such a powerful sense of smell that they can find water from deep within the dry, sandy earth. Other animals rely on elephants to dig and to find this water, so that they can drink from it, after the elephants finish. It turns out that, among many other wonderful things, elephants are enormous ecological divining rods.

Supposedly our human sense for smelling rain is better than a shark’s ability to sniff blood in the water. I think that is why I like shows about nature or observing nature around me. It’s such a keen reminder that we are so much more than our minds, and the stories that we tell ourselves. We are just complicated animals who have lost the awe for what our senses can tell us, and do for us. We need to remind ourselves of our own amazing ability to sniff out petrichor when we are wandering through dry spells in our lives. We need to take some time every day to just be in our senses, and to use our senses to lead us to cleansing refreshment and renewal when we think that our wells have run dry. We need to learn to trust our whole selves, and not just our minds alone, as without checks and balances, our minds tend to be a little tricky and deceiving.

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Soul Sunday

Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.

Good morning. Below is a picture that I took this morning, of one of our plants, who lives on our back porch. What a beauty! This gorgeous green palm is the inspiration for the poem which I wrote below. There is so much inspiration for poetry in all of our lives, if we are just willing to look for it, and to contemplate it. Sundays are the perfect days to contemplate the epic poems of our own lives. Today, live as if your own life was a treasured poem to be shared throughout the ages. We all have our odysseys. Explore and record and savor the epic-ness of your own inner and outer life. It’s a hidden treasure waiting for you to notice it.

And as the raindrops glistened in the new morning sun,

the plants understood that they had been kissed by diamonds,

through the torrential storms and the terrors of the night.

It’s just that they had to wait for the buoyant light of day,

to see the blessing of what was once thought their plight.

Wash All My Cares Away

“Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life.” – John Updike

It’s been incredibly rainy here the last couple of days and nights. I expect fish to be flopping in my backyard soon and I am only half-kidding. We have a lake in the back of our house and there have been “fish flopping on the grass” moments in the past. I don’t mind the rain, as long as it comes in small doses.

Rainy days have the tendency to make me draw inward. They help me to stay calm, focused and relaxed. Rainy days make me appreciate the comfort of my home and the warmth of my lights. Rainy mornings make my coffee taste extra good and comforting. Rainy days remind me that outpouring can be so cleansing.

A couple of years ago, I was browsing in a boutique and a song came on over the speakers, that I hadn’t heard in years. I forgot how much I love to sing to this particular song. I love it when that happens! I downloaded it to my playlist the minute I got home and now I listen to it frequently. Do you know what song I am talking about? Drumroll, please . . . . The song is Eddie Rabbitt’s “I Love a Rainy Night.” Here are the first few stanzas:

Well I love a rainy night; I love a rainy night.
I love to hear the thunder;
watch the lightning when it lights up the sky.
You know it makes me feel good.Well, I love a rainy night; it’s such a beautiful sight.
I love to feel the rain on my face;
taste the rain on my lips,
in the moonlight shadows.Showers wash all my cares away;
I wake up to a sunny day,
’cause I love a rainy night.
Yeah, I love a rainy night.
Well, I love a rainy night.
Well, I love a rainy night, ooh, ooh.

Okay, admit it. You didn’t just read the lyrics. You sang them. You couldn’t help yourself. If you are having a rainy moment like I am, let it wash all your cares away. Now go download the song. You know you want to . . . . See you tomorrow for Favorite Things Friday! It is Friday Eve today.