I step onto the porch and breathe deeply of the morning mist. Gray mornings like this one, with their wind and rain, are a welcome relief from the intense sun and humidity of our Midwestern summer.

I doubt I would be content in a climate that doesn’t offer the changing seasons.  A place where the sun is always shining, where leaves never change color, where a blanket of snow never falls — paradise for some, this would bring death to my soul.

Because I need the highs and the lows, the rain and the sunshine. I need to know that while life isn’t always perfect or beautiful, warm and sunny, the gloom will lift. Refreshing rains will come and wash away the debris of painful moments and hard news. Wind will push me out of the valley and onto the mountaintop where a blanket of snow offers a soft landing.

Someone once said “into each life some rain must fall.” I googled it and, of course, it was a poet, the esteemed Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. In the last stanza of his poem “The Rainy Day” he says this:

Be still, sad heart! and cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.

Indeed, some days must be dark and dreary, lest we take for granted the warmth of the sun.

The watercolor featured here is by Charles Burchfield, titled “September Wind and Rain” (1949)

I wrote for five quick minutes today on the word “rain”. You can read posts by other bloggers linked up today at Five Minute Friday. Don’t miss the essay by FMF host Kate Motaung, who recently spent six weeks in her husband’s homeland, South Africa. They arrived during a severe drought, but the rains did come. Here’s an excerpt:

“It reminded me of the dry seasons in our lives when it seems He’s far away, and we keep praying and praying for the same thing. Then suddenly, His abundant grace gushes onto the roof and we’re so giddy with excitement and gratitude that we run outside with mouths wide open to drink in the blessings fresh out of His hand.” ~ Kate Motaung