Rain instead

Daily Devotion - March 28

I will try to send a brief message each day (except Mondays) while we are pausing gathering in person.
- Kara

my neighbor's tulips

Have you stepped outside yet today, Minnesota friends?
Do it.
Then breathe in deeply.
Again.

It rained last night.
And it is supposed to rain all weekend.
We've been annoyed about that in my house -  we had big weekend plans to be outside. We cleaned the yard and "opened the deck" last night-  which is to say, we scrubbed it down and put out the deck furniture, moved the grill into place, ready for our first big outdoor meal this weekend.

But we got rain instead.
So much rain. All weekend long.

This morning, though, first thing out of bed, I stepped outside and I breathed.

My friend called it "fresh scrubbed air," and that's what it is.  That's what the unexpected feel of the cool, heavy, humid air on my skin and the deep earth smell did to me; it made me feel like this is a fresh scrubbed day, and I am a fresh scrubbed person.

A few days ago, someone said to me, "Let's share some things that haven't been canceled...."  

And so here is one: Spring.

The snow pile in the shady spot in the back corner of our yard is almost gone. The wet leaves from last Fall tucked around the edges of the house are begging to be raked. The tulips are poking up through the dirt next to the neighbor's stretch of sidewalk.  The thaw is almost over, the life is percolating underneath waiting to burst out. Birds are louder and squirrels more brazen. We are stir crazy and so is the earth - it's ready for new life to emerge.

But nature is not in a hurry.  She has her own steady pace. She takes her time.  And the rain is part of that.  Even the slushy half-snow rain that is coming on Sunday can't cancel Spring, and indeed, is helping it along.

I read this morning somewhere some version of, "There's hope, maybe not the hope we hoped for, but hope nonetheless."

So, welcome, rain. Welcome, Spring.
Let's breathe it in and watch what it brings.

CONNECTING RITUAL:

Here's a blessing from David Steindl-Rast's 99 Blessings:

Blessing 79
Source of all blessings,
You bless us with summer rain -- starting with a smell all its own when drizzle settled the dust, turning into a calm flow, then becoming a steady stream, sleepy and unhurried, that falls all day

(and the next and the next), till time stands still: making the earth soft and rich and the grass green.
May I let its voice so quiet my mind that I become for all around me like mild rain.

Perhaps today at some point of pause, whatever time that is in each of our homes, we might follow this pattern and write/pray our own blessing:

Source of all blessings...
You bless us with:
May I:

If you do write one, please email it to me. I'll share them on Tuesday.