Rain

Love Scenes; Diana Krall

I like rain. I find peace in rainfall. The typical person finds gloom and doom when cloudbursts come to call. I don’t. The ambience that the rain creates when droplets from heaven hit the sidewalk, the street, the leaves, the roof, the windowpane and the windshield of my car brings ease to my spirit.

One evening last summer, while visiting my sister K. in Missoula, Montana, I spent the last hour before bedtime outside in one of her rocking chairs. As I sat under the eave of her house by the lake, the raindrops from a mountain thunderhead made landfall just a few inches from my toes. And the serene din created by the impact of water bullets from the sky onto cement, grass, a picnic table and the lake tranquilized all of us.

K. laughed at me when I made the comment that our rendezvous with the rain may vie with glorious mountain scenery for the most memorable portion of our vacation. Though I hiked in the glorious mountain scenery, waded in cold, mountain streams, experienced the rapture brought on by a huckleberry pie and said the word “loincloth” more times than anyone was really comfortable, at almost eleven months out, I recall the rain moment with just as much clarity as anything else. I like rain.

“Gentle Rain”, by Brazilian composers Luiz Bonfa and Eumir Deodato, falls easily under the fingers of Diana Krall. It also suits her voice. The lyrics she sings have nothing to do with rain. Captain Kangaroo had little to do with captains, nor with kangaroos. “Gentle Rain” is a beautiful song and, due to its title, makes we want to spend an afternoon under a covered picnic shelter with a book … while completely surrounded by a rain shower.

Credits: To our huckleberry pie. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.