Yesterday we got three inches of rain. It came down in waves and buckets – sluicing down our pathways carrying pine needles with it, ponding in the front beds around the phlox and ferns and hostas, saturating the gardens full of pollinator plants and pooling in the fire circle forming a mirror for the gray sky above. We welcomed each drop to our too-dry ground and our barely-trickling creek. By the end of the day the creek was full and flowing, and the plants heavy with the weight of raindrops. Blessed be!

This morning as the sun rose and illuminated each raindrop like a jewel, I marveled at the gifts this remarkable rain had brought.

So many mushrooms popping up in beautiful shapes and sizes and colors.

The bird bath overflowing and reflecting the morning sun…

On the edge of our woods, a dead tree broken off and fallen on our path, bringing with it a dead branch branch filled with lichen…

One of the lichens, called Usnea, is a wonderful anti-viral medicinal. It grows slowly, so I only harvest it when it is gifted to me like this, on a fallen branch after a rainstorm in the forest… special medicine.

And an extra beautiful surprise… a luna moth, taking shelter under the leaves…

Had I not been out walking, observing, marveling, reveling in these moments, I might have missed these things. Tomorrow, every one of them will be gone, changed. Like everything, they are temporary, fleeting. But having taken the time to observe and absorb these gifts, they are now woven into the tapestry of me, a part of me forever.

So grateful for the gift of rain, but also for the gifts it brings, expected and unexpected. Remarkable rain.