I never thought I’d say this, but I miss the summer rains.
The cool relief of a cloud burst washing away the built up pressure of the day. The rumble and crack of rolling thunder in the darkness, a lumbering giant invisible in the night sky. The damp long grasses, freckled with pinpricks of dew in the morning. Each component, tactile and visceral, makes up its own flashbulb memory; distinctive, yet distinctly separate. There’s no timestamp, no geolocation, no metadata to click through and extract more information. Surely there were many rainstorms that visited through my childhood, appearing and fading away much like the last, blending into one amalgamated vision, softened by time and distance.
I don’t know how I grew so attached to the comfortable rhythm of weather patterns, so predictable that they were more reliable than the calendar as an indication of the passing days. Back then, summer was endless, stretching on through countless unscheduled weeks, lazy afternoons one after the other, not a hint of stress or guilt associated with inactivity. Punctuating the sweltering evenings with a quiet, soothing staccato on the window panes, their whispered song serving as a lullaby. Filling my mind and washing away the harsh edges, the summer rains were my meditation.
There are no more summer rains these days, far removed from the climate of my childhood. I miss them deeply because their music sang of comfort, an audible reminder of my shelter from the storm. It was my song, set on repeat for days on end; after so many years, it became my anthem.
Reblogged this on All About Writing and more.
You wax poetically quite beautifully. I love the thunderstorms and rains in my new home in SE-FL. …Here, I know what will perk you up – I just placed an order at Amazon and one of the cookbooks I ordered is: “Vegan Desserts: Sumptuous Sweets for Every Season”. I look forward to many sweet times.
Oh yes, that definitely brightens my (rainless) day! Thank you, and I hope it makes you just as happy, too. :)
We don’t get a lot of rain here in summer either. Our rainy season is spring which we are just approaching now. I think having that summer rain eases the pressure of that build up of heat and dust that otherwise saps your energy and makes the waiting for the first rains that bit harder. You are approaching autumn. Does it rain much in autumn where you live Ms Hannah?
Ah, for it to be spring again! I’m not looking forward to the transition into Autumn, but I have a feeling you know me well enough to guess that by now. The only time we get rain in the bay area is during winter. There seriously isn’t a single drop until January, and then the clouds dump enough water in the span of 3 weeks that we have to swim when we walk out the door. There’s just no balance!
We seem to have had a reasonably steady rainfall through our winter which isn’t usual. Winter is usually dry and so is summer. Spring and Autumn are our rainy seasons. I would be imagining that most people in the Bay area would have rainwater tanks if that’s all the rain that you get, or at least succulent and cactus gardens. It would be a most interesting gardening problem to solve.
Yes indeed, we have both! Rock gardens and AstroTurf are also popular options. ;)
Astro turf. The resort of the terminally lazy ;) Seriously, why not use some of those gorgeous Californian type wildflowers that we all lust after over here like salvia etc. to populate your gardens. Just plant LOTS of them and they act as green mulch for their neighbours and you cut the moisture loss in half. Geraniums are great heat lovers and bougainvillea does particularly well on a hot tin roof in 10+ heat ;)
Do you miss it enough to move back to Boston? Don’t forget summer rain leads to winter snow!
It’s hard to deny a certain nostalgia at times, but the snow is DEFINITELY not a draw for me. If I never saw snow again for the rest of my life, I’d be okay with that. I don’t know how I survived through that for so many years!
This is beautiful Hannah. We don’t get rain here much either, and I have to admit a feeling of comfort when it hits. I mean, I have no desire to move back to the constantly rainy northwest, but when it rains now, it feels like this wonderful excuse to hunker down with a big mug of tea and just relax – guilt free.
Exactly what I’m saying. Glad I’m not the only one. :)
Beautiful post and agreed – the one thing we miss about living in Florida was the afternoon thunderstorms – well, to a point. :-)
These are so beautiful, they should be hanging in a gallery!
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