Day 22: The Sound of Rain (31 Days of Simple Truths)

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They said on the news something about it being 30 days or so since we’ve had rain. The dry, cracked ground and the browning grass bear witness to this.

So when the clouds started rolling in last night, it was hard to do anything beside peer up at the sky, waiting for the first drop. All through the day and into the evening, we waited.

And then it came, pouring down in a gentle cascade.

I realize then how my soul also bears witness to the dryness, to the immense thirst. I realize because of the relief that floods through my core as I stand at the window, now spattered with drops.

Sometimes I am so thirsty. I am waiting for heaven to pour out so I can open wide and drink deep. I want to gulp in the substance that will sustain life in me. I am staring at the sky.

The sound of rain is the whisper of hope that, just as the rains come in season, so my heart will be flooded with what it needs, at exactly the right time.

Now, the rain falls. Now, my heart waits. And hopes.

Desert Prayer (Meditations with Rilke)

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But you take pleasure in the faces

of those who know they thirst.

You cherish those 

who grip you for survival.

– Rilke’s Book of Hours: I, 14

I know that I thirst. I know it with a depth of certainty I have for only a few things. It is the desert after all – what else does one do out here besides thirst?

And grip You for survival. Do You see? I am gripping, clinging. All my life force is wrapped around You. I cannot let go. I will not let go. Do You see? I choose You. I am choosing You day after silent day, even when I cannot see.

I cannot see Your pleasure. I cannot see Your eyes light up with the truth of cherished. I cannot see.

But still I thirst. Still I grip. Because if I do not have You, I have nothing. This I know. It is all at once my torment and my hope.

You. Only You.

 

*I recently purchased a copy of Rilke’s Book of Hours and oh my goodness – it is so beautiful and so intimate. I find myself able to articulate things from deep places in my heart as I contemplate his words and have decide to write my way through some of them. It will be a series of sorts, as various poems resonate with me and prompt a response. Consider yourself invited to eavesdrop on my vulnerable dialogue with God here.