I just came back in from a run. I have been meaning to go for one all weekend but it just never happened. One of the reasons was we were up at a cottage and it just did not stop raining..not light rain..downpour..and it was cold(fall temperature cold-and I had optimistically packed hot summer day clothes). So I came up with excuses not to go. I was cold, it was wet, I was tired, etc.So today I planned to run first thing after work. No more excuses! The kids were playing with friends..the dog was napping..I was laced up and ready to go. I stepped outside to a huge crack of thunder..and then it came...not a light rain..a downpour. I stood there for a moment in complete disbelief. What was going on here with this rain following me and interrupting my running schedule?I found myself at that crossroads of choice. It would have been really easy to go inside, do some of the backlogged errands from the list(a mile long) and wait out the rain. It was coming down so hard, surely it would only last 15 minutes or so.BUT. This had been going on for 4 days with me. Girl interrupted, by rain. If I did not go, I knew the rain would follow me all week.So I decided to jump in and go..there had to be a lesson in this for me somewhere..other than not being a big baby..there had to be something..this rain keeping me from running had been persisting too long. I had run in rain before, I know I do not melt.... but I had been off my running schedule for a while and have not had a normal sleeping pattern lately so have been more tired than usual. All of these things made it so easy for me to delay to the following day what I knew needed to be done that day.So there I went, took off running. Not in a sprinkle, mind you..this was a power shower. Two minutes into the run and the water was pouring down the brim of my hat and landing on my face.But you know what?I LOVED every minute of it.I loved splashing through the huge puddles. I loved that the rain seemed to increase in volume and pressure as I ran. I loved how people slowed down to look at the crazy lady who was running in a rainstorm with a huge grin on her face. I was in Total Joy. I completely lost myself in the run and in the rain. I cannot even begin to tell you the journey I went on...but in it, I became Everything.I was the rain. I became it.I knew what it was like to have the journey as an individual raindrop only to inevitably link up with others as I hit the ground and reconnected with the source to run freely along the gutter. I knew what it felt like to hit a leaf and slide off only to drip off and land on the ground. I could feel what it felt like to land on soft grass and soil and to be absorbed into the ground.It was fantastic!I contemplated if a raindrop had consciousness....I felt it had feeling of experience because that is what I was experiencing..but did it have consciousness..maybe a consciousness specific to it..one that we could not even begin to contemplate in our limited experience of being human. My mind went wild but in a calm and peaceful way and I have to tell you from this moment forward I going to jump at the chance to run in the rain.I could feel it washing away all of the debris I had collected since returning home from my trip..all of the deadlines..all of the other people's stuff that had somehow become my stuff....I thanked God for the rain. And realized that it was indeed a miracle. I felt like a brand new person on the earth experiencing rain for the very first time..what it must be like for a baby, or young child or puppy...to realize that water was falling from the sky. How beautiful was that?! What an incredible thing!! That this 'life giving' water was coming from the sky, to water the plants and to wash away the old..to clean the earth..to clean ourselves...to make room for the new.I was grateful for, and in awe of this rain. And I wanted to share this before it became lost within my mind with all of the other wonderful epiphanies I seem to experience while running and then they fade as the day rolls out..like a fuzzy dream. I did not want to forget this rain, or my experience in it, because it reminded me of who I am. That I am part of everything and everything is part of me and to think of myself any differently is only to place myself in a very small container with limited room to breathe. We are so much greater than our 'individual' packages we are contained in and we need to be reminded of this all the time and I am grateful for my experience of running in the rain and how it brought me back to myself.