Happy Raindrops

Woke up this morning to gentle whisperings, raindrops on the roof, the stream rushing a little faster, the rooster crowing in the distance. Felt like the cloud cover hushed all the usual sounds and made the whole world softer. Nestling into the covers I laid in bed just absorbing. Nothing to rush towards, nowhere in particular to go, I could just feel the rain, breath the rain.

When I finally roused myself out of bed there was an interesting email waiting in my inbox. It was talking about the relationship between the endocrine system and the sinuses and how our nasal cavities have these special sensors that inform us about the ionic state of the air and how that in turn affects our attitudes and our day. Negative ions=happy days, positive ions=cranky days.

Laying in bed this morning, and even now sitting here on the couch, I can feel that sense of happy hormones being released in my body in response to the fresh air smell of the rain. If you want to read more about this nasal chakra idea click here. It's kind of cool.

But besides releasing all those nice negative ions, I like rain because it makes my world softer. I lose my expectations of big jobs in the garden. I think of tea, of making jam out of those ever ready plums. The sun creates purpose but the rain creates space. And sometimes it is nice to have a little extra space.