Into each life some rain must fall....

Its been raining a lot lately. Its been this way for several days now. Somehow, I don't really mind.

I like the rain. I like the dark and gloomy skies, the cold wind, the feeling of raindrops falling on my face, the pitter-patter I hear when the rain hits the ground, the splash I hear with every step I take.

Actually, I like the rainy season even more than I like summer. During cloudless days when the sun is shining brightly, with skies so blue and so clear that you can almost see forever, with birds singing, and children playing in the streets, I somehow feel obligated to be happy and cheerful. Its like you can't be sad, because you'll be sad all by your lonesome. Its like the old saying: "Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and you cry alone."

I like rainy days better. Maybe its true when they say that misery loves company. Somehow I feel better about myself during rainy and stormy days. Perhaps its because everyone else feels so miserable about the weather. Or maybe because the day itself seems so gloomy, that I don't feel obligated to feel happy and cheerful anymore. Maybe the rain encourages me to be more myself than the sun does. I'm not particularly sure myself. I've been this way from as far as I can remember, even when I was a child. Perhaps then the motivations were different. Stormy weather often resulted in suspended classes. :-)

I guess the rain reminds me of the fact that I'm bound to see rainbows after the storm. That even turbulent times, difficult situations, like storms they all disappear eventually. Yeah. Maybe that's it. I guess its easier for me to shine on the inside when things are a bit darker on the outside. If things were bright, I doubt it if anyone would notice even if I did shine on the inside.

And besides, I feel like James Dean walking in the rain. :-)

I guess you have to be pretty weird to find meaning in something as mundane and humdrum as rain. That's just fine with me. Weird is nice. And I'd rather be weird than ordinary any day of the week. :-)

This is my favorite "rain" poem. For Rain, whose name reminds me of the weather that I like best. :-)

The Rainy Day

The day is cold, and dark, and dreary
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.

My life is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
My thoughts still cling to the mouldering Past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,
And the days are dark and dreary.

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow