Friends,
I wrote this on Tuesday, which, like Monday before it, was a rainy spring day. Springtime rain is not something we get to experience much in California, so I always consider April rain to be a treat, even after a long, wet winter. I love rain that falls on days when it isn’t too cold. I love how drops of moisture collect on newly-unfolded deciduous leaves. I love how sunlight—muted by clouds—accentuates all the different shades of green, some of which I didn’t know existed.
So I decided to write about my love of springtime rain, and, looking for inspiration, I turned to the poets on my bookshelf. Given my love for springtime rain, I was surprised by the first poem on the subject that I found. The poem, called “Anecdote of Rain” is by the Polish Poet Adam Zagajewski.
I was strolling under the tents of trees
and raindrops occasionally reached me
as though asking:
Is your desire to suffer,
to sob?
Soft air,
wet leaves;
—the scent was spring, the scent sorrow.
I like the poem, but clearly, it was not written by me. It is hard for me to imagine feeling anything but comforted by the scent of a springtime rain. It is even harder for me to imagine being Polish and thinking the scent of spring is a scent of sorrow. I’ve never been to Poland but I assume Polish winters are long and cold and that springtime in Poland would be a happy season for just about everyone.
But it turns out we cannot assume the rain in springtime is universally appreciated, even in Poland, and that is a good reminder. We cannot assume everyone shares our opinions, our experiences, our preferences or our spiritual condition.
One of the secrets of relational success is remembering that not everyone’s poem about springtime rain will be happy. Sometimes this means we have to accommodate others by learning to mourn on days when we’d otherwise feel happy; sometimes, for the sake of our loved ones, we need to rejoice even when we’d rather grieve. More often, however, we need to allow our feelings to be authentic to who we are and not by driven by the opinions of others. If we need to grieve in the springtime, so be it. If we need to rejoice on a winter’s day when yesterday’s mud has been frozen into today’s ice, let it be so.
My prayer for you is that you will find God in happiness or in sorrow, or in whatever mood is yours as a gift of April rain.
God’s Peace,
Ben