First Rain

On Wednesday morning, September 5th, it rained.

All right, laugh, my friends in the Pacific Northwest. Here in California, it doesn’t just rain all the time. It isn’t something to be taken for granted. And not just if you work for the Water Department.

This morning’s rain only lasted a few minutes, just barely wet the ground, but it was special. Have you ever really watched it rain before? It’s magical.

It’s the first silver puddles of the season.

It’s dusty dribbles on Baby’s windshield that make me glad I didn’t wash her yesterday.

It’s dark thunderheads gilded with bright edges by a sun that’s there, but that you can’t see.

It’s sharp contrasts in the sky and wet asphalt on the ground.

It’s a fine veil sewn all over with silver stitches.

It’s an eager rustle, like the crinkle of a safe blanket coming up to your chin, like the whisper of a fairy godmother’s skirts.

It’s a soft, growing smell, a smell of motion and of rising, a halfway dusty smell, like the pages of an old book.

And it’s a cool breeze blowing through your house, straight through open windows, sweeping away the stagnant heat of a long, hot summer. It’s ushering in something new, an anticipation of what may be.


Fall is just around the corner! What do you look forward to about this new season?


10 thoughts on “First Rain

  1. I LOVE everything about fall. It has forever been my favorite season. My only misgiving is that it passes too quickly. I love the chilly mornings and crisp evenings. Love donning a sweater for the first time in months. Love the foods of autumn, cider donuts, pumpkin coffee, veggies & fruits of the harvest. The smell of wood-smoke curling through the neighborhood. Picking apples in our favorite orchard far up on a hillside. Oh, and the colors of fall…Yep, definitely. I love it all!

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  2. Fall is my second favorite time of year (spring being number 1). I always feel a sense of rejuvenation; that the creativity buried all summer under the heat can now emerge. I love the coolness, all the harvest joys and quietness that descends as the year approaches winter. It’s a reflective time when I start getting poetic. Yes, come on, bring on the fall.

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  3. Fall is slightly – just slightly – edged out by summer as my favorite. But I do love fall for all of the reasons people have listed above. Here in the NW it does signal that the rainy season is returning, though the last few years we’ve seen a delay in daily rain coming on and a lingering of sunshine. I’m crossing my fingers that we’ll have that kind of fall this year, too.

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