Blog # 2

Happy Saturday everyone! Thanks for subscribing!

I had planned to talk about today the interesting facts about how Nature is healing, and this will most likely be my topic for next week. One of my goals with my blog is to share my experiences that I have had with the great outdoors! I had an interesting experience last night and it involved a quick heavy rainstorm.

        Let me start by asking a question- Has anyone ever practiced mindfulness? Being mindful involves being fully immersed in the moment. It is focusing on the here and now. It is being aware of your thoughts, feelings and what sensations you experience at a certain moment.

       I have been practicing trying to be present in the moment. I have been focusing on using the five senses and what I am thinking/feeling at certain times.  

      Friday had been another hot day. We have had so many 90 degrees and above days here in the Northeast. It is not a common occurrence. We also have been having more thunderstorms due to the heat, and there was a severe thunderstorm watch in effect until 9pm. I happen to love thunderstorms, and I had been checking the radar several times during the day. The radar showed that we were not going to have one and the storms were south of us.

After we had dinner, the sky was getting dark, and it looked like a storm may be coming.  We did not have any thunder or lightning, but we had a pretty good rainstorm.

      I went to the back screen door and looked outside. It was quiet and I took a few moments to wait for it. As I said before, we have forest and wetlands behind us and it was very quiet, no birds singing and no wind. And then the rain started slowly at first, and then it started to pick up, until we had torrential rain.  After such a hot day, you could smell the rain! It has such a fresh scent and is very distinctive. You could feel the moisture in the air!  I was thinking that the trees and plants were saying Thank You as it drenched them with the summer rain- cooling everything off.  The trees were swaying in the wind trying to get all their leaves wet.

      I love listening to rain. I find it very calming and comforting. How it makes different sounds as it hits our coop roof, the pool, trees, windows and drain spouts. It makes me feel content and relaxed. It poured for several minutes.

      After the rain stopped, the sun did pop out for a few minutes, just long enough to have the most beautiful rainbow! I also noticed that as I was looking into the forest, the sun was reflecting off the wet ferns and leaves and was creating a beautiful effect of dancing lights. It was almost magical!  The little creatures were starting to come back out after the rain, and everything was coming alive again. The birds started with their songs, and the chipmunks were running around looking for food.

This was so simple, yet it was a very memorable experience for me.

Until next week, Get outside!!!!!!!!!!

Ann Marie

 The sun after the rain is much more beautiful than the sun before the rain. (author unknown)

“If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.” Vincent Van Gogh

“A single gentle rain makes the grass many shades greener.”

Henry David Thoreau