The rain plays a symphony that brings sleep, but not before it brings memories…
IT’S NIGHT. It’s raining. Quietly.
A soft rain is supposed to take you to sleep. Not tonight. It’s bringing back memories as it hits against the siding, touches the windows, makes its way through the tree leaves and touches the ground.
I’ve always liked rain. Soft rain. I like a good storm, so long as I am safe from it. But I really like a soft rain.
Memories.
My front porch as a child on a summer day in the rain. Sitting on the glider. Remember those? Neat couches that move back and forth and rock you while you read a book.
My apartment in college, on High Street in Oxford, Ohio. It had bay windows and my chair was in one of them and I would sit and read on a rainy day, the window open. A good book, my pipe giving a scholarly smell to the bedroom. The streets would glisten. The car tires would swoosh. Below me people scurried.
The old tenant house on the hog farm where we fled after a tornado destroyed our house. The house had a metal roof. During a heavy day it felt like you were under attack, but on the gentle rain days it provided a background to a nap and at night brought sleep more quickly.
A tent…no hike today. A sleeping bag I curl up in. Drops pelting on the tent, running down the sides. Snug.
This rain, tonight, is soft. It doesn’t put me to sleep; it asks me to listen. Each drop, making its way down, seems to play a different tune and they all combine into a symphony. No drums, no cymbals. No Wagner. He comes on other days and nights when storms are passing over.
Tonight is soft and gentle. Debussy, Handl’s “Water Music.” Maybe a lullaby. Curl up. Sheets and blanket pulled close. Face buried in the pillow. The darkness made a friend by drops playing outside.
Perfect.
Rich Heiland is a retired journalist and semi-retired consultant, trainer and public speaker. During his journalism career he was a reporter, editor, publisher, college instructor, part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team and a National Newspaper Association Columnist of the Year honoree. He also writes the intodementia.com blog about his family’s experience with dementia. He lives in West Chester, PA and can be reached at [email protected].