A ‘pluviophile’ is ‘one who loves rain’ so I suppose I must be one. The rain seems to put me in touch with life’s poetic side – not always, but often – where I am able to step aside from the pragmatic demands of self and world, sensing something gratuitous and ‘more than’.
So much of life is spent with a hand on the tiller and while I realise that we must do a certain amount of steering, ‘captaining our ship’, the art and craft of living a tuned attentive life – tuned to ‘the Way’, according to Taoism – is to work in consort with wu wei, where we feel for the deeper currents and go with them. This yielding can’t be dismissed as hippy twaddle. It’s real; discernible. With it comes a sense of interconnection, a recognition of how our lives are made of fluid transient moments in which there is, potentially, moment – significance.
John Lawrence is a master of the pedal steel, and in this song, his slides, working with Gorwel’s guitar, help create the perfect mood. I think, as I write this, of our friend John Wright, who once told us that he likes this song. Because of that, he will always now be a part of it.
Lyrics
When it rained, I said to you
Earth is receiving her deep and her true.
We stood for an hour, watching the leaves
Of ten standing sycamore
Deepen their green.
When it rained, I said to you
See how the borage deepens her blue.
We stood for an hour, just touching hands
Watching the rainfall
Colour the land.
And the rain is like the moments of our lives
Raindrops are moments of our lives
Rain is the moment of our lives …
You can listen to ‘When It Rained’ here.
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