Lifestyle Tip: Go Ahead, Let the Rain Come Down On You! July 20, 2006
Editor’s Note: Under the canopy of today’s cloudy Arizona morning, I was inspired to share a rainy day desert story. If you know and like Michael W. Smith’s music, you’ve heard one of his recent songs, Healing Rain. Rain gets you wet; but it does heal. There are times in the summer … away from the lightening … when it’s worth just standing out in the rain.
Do you have any rainy day stories? Share them.Below is an excerpt from the family memoirs my brother, Brent, and I are slowly working on. Enjoy.
By Julie Murphree
A long run of intense hay baling in the spring and summer left Pat ready for a break. It was the weekend and Pat and Pennee wanted to go on a drive with the kids. Their favorite entertainment as a young couple with little “fun money” was piling in the pickup and heading out to the Arizona desert to explore. Pat had been all over as both a hunter and simply an explorer. From early on Pat read a bit of history about out-of-the way places in Arizona’s Sonoran desert and would then go and explore.
He had his favorite places too. That’s where they’d go today; a frequent haunt to hike around and see the beautiful country.
With windows rolled down and slow speeds over the dry river bed, cicadas suddenly stopped buzzing. The summer heat’s thickness made their silence leave a ringing in the ears. Their sudden silence also signaled weather’s change. Rain was coming.
The air felt charged with energy currents. It would be an Arizona summer’s first quick cloud burst of rain.
Pat and Pennee, with Brent and Julie between them, turned their white Chevy truck onto a gravel road. They bounced through several streambeds with dry, pebbled bottoms scorched white and faded from the sun. Eventually, they pulled over on higher ground near a mountain called Table Top in Arizona’s Vekol territory.
An expansive and rugged desert lay before them. The storm came up from the south, moving slowly. It crept toward Pat, Pennee and the children like a huge blue-gray sheet drawn along by the unseen hand of God. From time to time spastic white ribbons of lightening jumped between the mountaintops and the clouds. These random lightening ribbons were more exciting than Disney’s electric light parade.
A cool breeze came up behind them sending shivers up and down their spines.
Black-trunked mesquite trees whipped lightly in the breeze. Saguaros stood motionless and stark. The ocotillos swayed slightly too.
As the storm advanced it broke into dozens of pieces with rain falling from the high clouds in long, curving gray plumes.
The family sat, as if at a concert, watching with awe.
One plume of rain moved toward them. Julie pointed to the big drops spattering on the ground, and when it came closer they could hear them, as loud as pebbles poured on a tin roof. Rain coming fast now. One minute they were dry then they were being pelted with cold raindrops. Wet shirts clung to their shoulders. Instantly, the rain moved to the other side.
When the rain hit, Julie and Brent jumped up and down yelping like puppies. Pat and Pennee laughed.
Rays of sunlight streamed from between animal-like clouds behind them. Lightning hit somewhere in the distance and the clap of thunder made them jump. Stopped silent for a moment, they began to laugh again.
“I can smell the desert,” exclaimed Brent. He stopped to lift his nose to the air. Julie mimicked her brother and inhaled loudly and deep, snorting. “It smells clean,” he said.
“We’re smelling the leaves and branches from the greasewood bushes,” explained Pennee.
In unison they all inhaled. Julie and Brent sat down again beside Pat and Pennee. The clouds had turned pink, then blood red in the horizon hanging above the razor-sharp edges of the mountain range’s silhouette.
This Arizona weather symphony had been their private concert. They would be season ticket holders.
- Posted in : General, God's Globe, Lifestyle Tips
- Author : freshair
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This is just the best story! I could smell the smells and feel the thunder!
Excellent, excellent!
My mother in law (who’s an Ohio city girl) always laughs when it rains in Arizona, because we always go outside to jump and laugh. She doesn’t understand what a blessing rain is in the desert, as she grew up in the green swamplands of Toledo and then lived in Hawaii for thirty years! The nerve of her!
Reminds me of that song — not sure who sings it, “Miss you like the deserts miss the rain” — that’s what I tell my mother in law and she just smiles. xo
Julie, this was such a good story. I could see it so clearly from your description.