No Rain No Rainbow

By Bernadette A. Moyer

It’s raining! And it looks like the rain will keep coming for several more hours if not a full day or so of unrelenting rain. My flowers and plants look great! The lawn is green and we haven’t had to do a thing. Mother Nature has provided rain, cooler temps and just the right amount of sunshine. Today we are just one full week into the month of June.

In the past few years we have had scorching hot sunny days by now, we seem to have enjoyed earlier and longer summer temps. Some people are enjoying the rain; I know that I have as I slept with the French doors open and could hear the gentle tapping of the rain throughout most of the night. There is a cool breeze with clean and fresh air.

Others are having some anxiety since they have outside plans that will be impacted by the rain. I bet the beach population for this weekend is less than anticipated in the absence of sunshine. There are numerous events like graduations, fairs, festivals, concerts, yard sales and weddings that will go with plan B or cancel all together.

Today I will officiate an outdoor wedding by water’s edge and at a lighthouse location, there will be no cancellation. Tents and umbrellas will be used to shield the rain. I can’t help but reflect on my own wedding when immediately after our wedding vows, the rain stopped and the sun started to shine. Minutes later there was a double rainbow and all we could think was “no rain, no rainbow.”

I love sunshine but I also love the rain. There is that sense of calm that you can hear and a desire to slow down that overcomes us. Take your time, it is raining!

In life we all have our sunny days and we all experience the rainy ones too. To know “up” we must know “down” to know “happy” we must know “sad.” The weather reminds me of life and that we are not in charge. We don’t get to pick what days will be sunny or rainy what days will be happy or sad and there is probably a good reason.

How many of us might want all sunny days? Or all beach weather? Or weather that suits our outside events? But we know that it doesn’t work that way. We need the rain to cleanse the earth and to help the plants grow and to add to our water table and water sources. We would literally burn up without the rain.

Our tears and sadness are often just like the rain as they cleanse us from our hurts and heartaches. We need to cry so that we may cleanse and become new again. Every life has its own share of rain. We should learn to embrace our rainy days just like our sunny ones.

I have often thought that death must be just like life, like giving birth. A mother who goes through childbirth knows that her body takes over and that she is literally out of control. That child comes through the mother and arrives when it is ready. I imagine death to be the same; that it just takes over us and we are out of our control. That is all happens in its own natural time.

Today’s rain isn’t going to dampen the wedding I am officiating later today; the couple getting married is in love and ready to begin their life together as a married couple. This is their day, whether it rains or the sun is shining. The weather today will serve to remind me and others that we are not in charge and that there is a natural life force that determines things like weather and what happens in our life.

We learn that fighting the natural elements in life is unnecessary and that we should embrace them all. I love the rain and I love when the rain is over, because just like in life, after the rain, the sun returns and often shines even brighter!

Bernadette on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/bernadetteamoyer