Good morning…
Adorned with a new, nearly naked haircut, our little dog Gracie and I drove to her annual vet visit in the pouring rain. The completely drenching experience reminded me of a writing my friend recently shared.
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The Call of Rain by Matthew Kelly in Reflections of a Trappist Hermit, pp. 117-119
…Water is always an invitation to immersion (for me), an immersion with a quality of totality, since it would accept all of me, as I am. Some primal urge invites me to return to whence I came. At times I have done so. There is some special delight in simply walking in a stream, stepping into a lake. The child’s delight in a puddle is my adult’s in the sea…
No rain falls that I do not at once hear in the sound of the falling water an invitation to come to the wedding. It is rare that I do not answer. A walk in the evening rain in any setting is to walk in the midst of God’s loving attention to his earth, and, like a baptism, is no simple washing, but a communication of life. When you hurry out of the rain, I hurry out into it, for it is a sign that all is well, that God loves, that good is to follow.
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Rain offered the perfect weather for me to return to the place where, in June, we put to sleep our bigger dog Tate. When the vet walked in, my soul kinda leapt. This was the gentle doctor who had cared for our sweet Tate from the first day she came to us, as an eight-week-old pup, until her very last moments on earth. Tenderizing tears streaked down my cheek, like raindrops on the car window.
After swapping Tate stories and remembering her peaceful presence, I told the vet that we are looking for our next golden retriever puppy.
With a genuine smile she said, “I can’t wait to meet your next lucky girl.”
Seems we both understand the call. Rain and tears are an immersion into the cycle of life, death, and new life. The open invitation possesses a quality of totality, like walking in a stream, stepping into a lake, jumping with joy into a messy, muddled puddle. Water is a sign that all is well, that God loves, that good always follows. You see, God blesses the ground that drinks of the rain and then produces a bountiful crop for those who cultivate it (Hebrews 6:7, VOICE).
…Sue…
