To Rain!

What is it that I love so much about rain? I love its gentle, soothing sound that lulls me, when the sky is dark and everything is cozy. I love its wild freedom when it is pouring and blowing everywhere, accompanied by great claps of thunder and sky-splitting lightening. It surprises me, coming from a blue, blue sky, as if God is feeling lighthearted and playing a gentle prank. My plants respond to rain in a way they never do to the water hose. The water hose keeps them alive, but the rain nourishes and refreshes them. My children were always extra happy, wide smiles under dripping bangs, when they were allowed to play in the rain. The whole earth seems happy after a rain storm, everything bright and clean, ducks quacking while skimming around the pond, frogs in the pasture putting on a concert. I love the gathering clouds as a rainstorm approaches, and the sun as it breaks through afterward in shining paths straight from heaven. And the rainbows! Stretched from earth to sky and back again, full of shimmery promise. How do I love the rain? Let me count the ways.