Random Musings

Rain

It's raining right now. I love it when it rains at night.

I'm a night person, always have been. Regardless of the weather, after everyone else is in bed, I'm usually up, writing or reading, sometimes just thinking. The sound of rain on the roof facilitates all of that. I find it soothing, and somehow, cleansing.

When I was a child, when I discoverered that I was a night person, the rain and the sound of it would make me feel frightened and lonely. I thought I could only be happy in daylight and in sunshine. But that was before I learned to accept what I was. It was before I learned to be comfortable in my own skin and to love my own company; before I understood that the night and the solitude that comes with it were things to cherish rather than to fear.

My current house is a contemporary, which means that its rooms are designed on several levels, and in some places, the ceiling of a room is just under the roof- nothing in between. My bedroom is like that. The sound of the rain right above my bed comes through clear and rhythmic, sort of like tiny smooth pebbles being poured from some huge, bottomless cosmic bag.

In the summer here in Georgia, when it rains in the night, that's when it's the best. The windows are open, so the scent of damp earth and wet grass wafts in on gentle breezes that lift the curtains, and make the blinds hum. The smell, the sight, the sounds; so refreshing and relaxing. The drips, pelts, and the splashing as the random car passes down the road, so calming.

My fingers skim across the keys of the laptop, my eyes skim across the words on the page, my mind, the whole time generating and soaking up images and ideas.

Eventually I am lulled by all of it, into sleep, pacified by all the elements of the rain.

I love it when it rains in the night.