it rained briefly - twice yesterday -
my class ran to the windows both times.
they know i get that whole thing.
like snow.
birds that fly into the glass.
a cool bug.
or just because it's lovely and important.
we talked about how we'd get home.
some of us bike.
some of us walk.
it was hard rain.
and then
gone just as quickly.
~
i love the grey-blue closeness.
the soft clatter of the rain's silverblue fingers.
i treasure the leaving . . .
scattered
quicksilver pools
in which the mother
cloud sky home
can find its own resonant self.
ono no komachi praying for rain
i love the sun as much as i love the rain.
i live with people who don't share my acceptance!
this poem describes their experiencing of rainy days.
days that i sometimes long for.
colour of the flower
has already faded away,
while in idle thoughts
my life passes vainly by,
as i watch the long rains fall.
you see i know that rain . . .
like life . . .
kawase hasui hiejinja shrine in rain
eventually ends . . .
and its memory becomes a sensation
stored within the soul . . .
which, like a river,
flows ever onwards . . .
kawase hasui evening at beppu
and wisdom,
when married to a love for all things,
leads to real peace and real understanding . . .
ono no komachi as an old woman
19 comments:
Steven, we're getting heavy rain on our corrugated iron roof as I read this! A marvelous sound! Hope it's going North to wash that red dust away!
I'll read about ono no komachi now; we're having a lazy day!
Very enjoyable, thanks.
Hello Steven
Last time I was in Kyoto I stood on the steps of the Heian Jingu shrine right where that geisha in the purple kimono is standing in her geta...in the rain...and waited, just as she is waiting, for the downpour to pass over...
...then I went to a lunch of tempura and noodles...
thanks for bringing back those rainy day memories...
Happy days
hello alaine - now that's a sound i adore!! deeply adore! i was wondering aloud on delwyn's blog about what happens to allt he dust that settles on the living and non-living things. i guess rain is one thing you can hope for. have a sweet lazy day!!! steven
hello delwyn!! what a beautiful coincidence!!!! what an even more beautiful memory you lucky person!!!! have a lovely day by the river. steven
It's raining here now. I'm so happy for it.
More beautiful prints. Where do you get them all steven?
I am always fed by your words and images. Thank you for being so soul nurturing, Steven.
I've had great teachers but never a school teacher who understood running to the window to check out the weather.
I salute you! Bravo!!
I love the rain! We get so little of it that when it comes it's something of an occasion - we get a fire going and spend much time watching out the windows. We drilled a hole in the rain gutter above the birdbath, so when it rains we have a steady trickle splashing down - small pleasures!
I'm having a Twilight Zone moment - I looked out the window & said "it's raining!" and then clicked on your blog. It's been rainy & drear here all week. Sometimes I mind, sometimes I don't (this can change hourly LOL).
What age students do you teach? Do they know how absolutely cool it is to have you as a teacher, or do they not "get" you like my husband's students don't always "get" him?
I stood with a friend on the banks of a river one day steven,, some years ago now. The friend remarked that the river was flowing long before we were born and would be doing so long after we were gone. She is gone now and I often think of her words.
"they know i get that whole thing."
That made me smile, and the kids in your class must smile quite a bit too I am willing to bet.
What marvelous prints.
I am praying for rain on my end. Drought from spring, and summer, record breaking heat, and high winds today = yikes! I know though that this too shall pass.
Enjoy your day!
If only pearls of wisdom were as profuse as precipitation! I love the rain - the smell of the earth newly drenched - and the little gems on leaves when the sun returns.
Just noticed you're reading Time Traveler's Wife - did you catch my un-review of it? Here's the link:
http://snowlikethought.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html
Contrary to what my post suggested to some, I actually thoroughly enjoyed the book! Can't wait to read her next one :) Thank you for your recent comment.
oh ellen, i dig and i dig and i dig and i root and root and pick from the very most lovely of all!!!!!! have a lovely evening. steven
hello reya, i remember the very first time i saw snow. i was seven in england. the teacher was a miserable old lady. strict. beyond strict as we know it. but the day it snowed- and this was manchester, england 1965 - she let us go and look. it was pure magic. really pure. i have never forgotten that. life passes us by so quickly that it's really important to elevate the "little moments' to their rightful place!! thanks for the lovely comment!!! have a sweet dc evening. steven
hello golden west, it rains here off and on - sometimes more on and sometimes more off. i miss it when it doesn't rain for more than three weeks. that should tell you how much it rains here!!! have a lovely evening. steven
hi bug, i teach grade six so 10 - 12 year olds. two thirds of my class is made up of "requests" which means the parents asked for me to be their child's teacher. my own belief is that i am meant to teach whomever i am given. i have requested one student myself. i had a deep sense that i could help a deeply troubled student turn a corner. it happened and so i know it was meant to happen. "do they get me" - "do i get them"? over time we develop into a little microcosm of the world as i imagine it. have a lovely evening. steven
hello weaver - your words threw me back to a river i crossed on stepping stones on a christmas holiday at a christian endeavour home in saltburn when i was seven years old. six months after that river crossing, my mum , my bruvver and i left for canada and left my friends, my toys, my dog, my family (extended and friend family) forever. the river flows ever onward. thankyou for this powerful comment weaver. steven
hi liza - the kids and i laugh lots - we celebrate brilliance and dopiness equally! my classes have something of a reputation as wellsprings of creative thinking - and also subversive behaviour. uh oh!!! but it's all in goodness and they go on from me to do great things. all sorts of success stories from kids who came from poor, difficult, challenged families who trusted me to do what i do which is give hope to disenfranchised undervalued kids. i love it because that's where i came from.
liza rain is so precious as a sensory sensual experience. it makes me wonder where you are that you have such crap weather. well i shouldn;t say that because all weather has something of value about it, but give me sun and rain in equal measure to make my mind and body happy!!! have a peaceful evening.. steven
hi rachel - thanks for the lovely sensory comment! i love being in the woods when it rains. i dont mind getting thoroughly soaked and i carry my camera with me to see what i can see. what i wish is that the smells of leaves and earth and wet wood could somehow be carried along with the pictures and sounds. i'd love to be able to share the sound of rain dropping, leaves rustling, animals scurrying through the underbrush. i hope the means to do all of this arrives in my lifetime.
have a lovely evening. steven
Like Reya, I am so struck by the way that you can still experience WONDER and share that with your students. We are having our first rain in weeks, and I am in love with it again. I've been smelling my roses (and deadheading, too; awful word); the rain brings out their scent.
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