Souls and Rain Drops

Yesterday was a glorious rainy day out.  It was the kind of day that calls for a blanket and hot cup of tea.

I can't remember the last time we got a steady drizzle.  Driving back from a film shoot the other night in the valley, I saw lightning over the hills and it surprised me so much.  I was dazzled as if I was a child seeing it for the first time, and then I quickly had to get my eyes back on the road.

It's funny how something as common as rain can be such a nuisance in some places but such a special event in others.  I remember one time the local news sent a crew to a supermarket parking lot to report on the drizzle.  And many people in Los Angeles view rain as a perfectly legitimate excuse to stay home from work. 

Having lived in other places where rain often brings its bigger buddies with it (thunder, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc.), it's kind of nice to just have a little gray shower without all the threats.  It helps us appreciate the sun we take for granted.

I love this little poem by Sidney Lanier reflecting on the rain.  It says so much with just a handful of lines.  The poem itself is like a rain drop.  It plops in, wrinkles my brow as I think about it, and then dissipates.  

Souls and Rain Drops

Light rain-drops fall and wrinkle the sea,
Then vanish, and die utterly.
One would not know that rain-drops fell
If the round sea-wrinkles did not tell.

So souls come down and wrinkle life
And vanish in the flesh-sea strife.
One might not know that souls had place
Were't not for the wrinkles in life's face.