What to do on a rainy day?

A Casual Conversation                                   Catherine Al-Meten Meyers

If rain were a condition to stop a person from taking care of business or getting out to enjoy an activity in my region, no one would go out for much of the year. Many of us who live in rainy climes do so because we like the weather. Pluviofiles, those who love the rain, is what we are called. Or what we call ourselves. Yet there are some rainy days that  are fiercer than others. This past week, the meteorologists and emergency services folk have been preparing us in a series of warnings of the possibility of a deluge.  Most people, including me, got themselves prepared and hunkered down. For the most part, the anticipated emergency was not what it had been predicted to be. Nevertheless, we waited...waited for the storm that never seemed to show up. Oh it rained, and there was lightening and thunder, and some places inland or up and down the coast got hit harder than we did. But our little community was not inundated with too much.

So after the let down that comes when our expectations don't manifest, we all probably slept well last night. I know I did. This morning I woke refreshed and ready to meet a new day in earnest. I'm at the rewrite and prepublication preparation stage of a book I'm working on, and so today I spent some time picking fonts and making changes to the manuscript.  All the while, the sky gets a kind of pale gray and the rains began falling. Steady, constant, sometimes heavy rain is soaking the land. The tide is high as the Moon has reached her fullness, and life has a kind of blanket on it, keeping everything in a kind of slow and peaceful mode.  Non-action. Receptive and open to the fullness of now, and the time we now have when nothing much is calling us away from where we are right this moment. It's Sunday, Sabbath for many, a day of rest. We have permission. Indeed we have a mandate to rest, to enjoy the now of our lives.

After a day of following the news cycle, prepping for a storm that never made it to town, and the anticipation of what might be just about ready to happen, I am back into a mode of wanting to actually do something of substance. I've waited for 3 days to do the laundry because I wasn't quite sure the power would stay on.  Now is the time though. Time to get to it. Also longing to head out to the pier and enjoy the rainy weather and the wonderful sea sounds and river noises and the aroma of the briny and fishy sea air.  No ships or boats have been in view for a couple of days now, so unusual for the river life. Longing to connect to what is happening beyond my little nest.

Feeling a connection and an exhaustion as a result of all the political upheaval connected to the campaign election. Wishing to avoid dropping down into fear or anger or some other dark hole, I've been looking for bright signs of Life.  The beautiful plants on my fridge that seem to stretch their branches out to touch around for a drop of sunlight. The fading glory of the purple Dahlia in a glass of water. A gift from a good friend. A reminder of the cycle of life. Quiet and calm, where even an unusual sound made by my hand as I reach for something, startles my cat because it's so out of the ordinary. Enough to break the peaceful stillness, but not enough to harm even a fly or that ladybug who came in on my sweater sleeve. We all live in peaceful coexistence in this home. The spiders hidden away in their dark nests, the cats and ladybugs amusing one another.

And as I wander through my mind in thoughts of those I love, I think of how words and communication affect us.  What words have influenced me the most? What kind of communication has really made a difference, for the better? What kind of energy has affected me and others the most? And what words are there to help us heal? As a writer, the power and energy of words is paramount in our ability to communicate anything. So what words light my way? The thought of the words on the Sunday School wall when I was a child, God is Love.  That and "Love is Reflected in Love". So simple. Such a basic truth that grounds and guides me. For if God is anything, Love is what it is. The Source of all that gives life. The balm for hurt and misunderstandings and injuries, intentional or unconscious. And so for today, what there is to do, is to remember that Love that dwells within and lights up and transforms even the darkest night, calms even the fiercest of storms, and quiets even the most agitated heart. May peace and love reign in you as you read this, and may it quell the storms in your life.