Celebrate the Rain

Courtyard at Casa Antigua Hotel in Antigua, Guatemala

Just outside our hotel room in Antiqua, Guatemala is this courtyard. We’ve spent numerous hours here reading, writing, processing photos, and at times just listening to the bubbling water of the fountain.

We’ve arrived in Guatemala just as the rainy season has ended and the “dry” season has begun, which only means that it rains less now than throughout the summer months. Yesterday it rained a bit just after sunset and the shimmering wet leaves and the glow from the overhead lights made the garden sparkle. I couldn’t help capturing the scene.

Processing this photo has made me remember something important. Rain can easily be associated with gloom and disappointment. At times it can be disastrous, like in the path of recent hurricanes. We even have phrases like, “when it rains, it pours” - a sort-of pessimist’s motto. Rain is also associated with tears and can remind us of sorrow and loss.

These sayings and emotions are birthed out of a necessity to help us cope with the difficult moments of our lives. Rain is good to remind us of sorrow and loss, gloom and disappointment, but it is also those things that remind us that we are whole being experiencing a wide range of emotions, wrestling with complex issues; grief combined with guilt, magnified by exhaustion.

This range of emotion brings depth to our souls - just like rain brings out the depth in the colours of a garden. So celebrate the rain, remember its worth and give thanks.