Writer on the Wall

I heard the rain all last evening as I cooked our dinner, and I hear it still this morning.

I had to screenshot this forecast for the next few days because it is rare in Fresno/Clovis to see rain so many days and hours in a row.

We’ve been in a drought, along with the rest of California, for the past five years. If it all comes to pass is another story, but even a slow steady soaking over several days would be a good thing.

An article in The Fresno Bee said “Central California is in for a week of potentially very wet storms from an ‘atmospheric river.’”

Atmospheric river is a term I’ve only become aware of in the past few years. It means a thin, long plume of moisture emanating from the tropics or subtropics.

I like the idea of a river churning in the clouds above us, dropping rain and snow to our parched earth below. 

We’re due for a good washing. Let the dust run off and become mud. Let the rain on our face awaken us, offering baptism and blessing. May it awaken dry seeds deep within us, and result in a superbloom of our spirits.

I can’t say it any better than the poet Langston Hughes:  

“Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.”