Seattle was home during high school as landing in the Pacific Northwest after globe trotting along with my career military father, who was now a college professor was clearly pre-destined…
I was a 16 year old lover of jazz and early that fall I found myself in the balcony at our rival, Garfield High, for Jimi Hendrix’s memorial service. At the time Wes Montgomery and Antonio Carlos Jobim were at the top of my A-list of guitarists, leaving no room for The Experience, Woodstock or the likes of rock & roll’s purple haze that was popular at the time…my focus was on measuring my shoe size (16) on my birthday which exempted me from the draft.
I came to appreciate the journeys of misty rain as I broadened my music appreciation to encompass wah-wah electronics and camping…fireplaces, pizzas with sliced tomatoes and red lights became the new norm.
Rain and fog became friends as did my appreciation of camping and solitude. I enjoyed and still enjoy rain, but fog and mist became intriguing.
Rainy days were great for reading books and fireplaces , while heavy fog was a joyous backdrop for discovery walks…it was during these walks I began to accept my inner voice as soul-speak.
I began to have conversations between my surface self and my soul, in appreciation of both, seeking answers to questions from both…soon, the words of Jimi began to resonate over the guitar riffs:
…With the power of soul
Anything is possible
With the power of soul
Anything is possible
With the power of soul
Anything is possible
With the power of soul
Anything is possible
With the power of you
Anything you want to do…
…the closing line was parallel to my father’s teachings of the word “can’t” not being allowed in our household…
I became a rain walker, who embraced NEVER as a falsehood and lifted my head on rainy, foggy days to taste the dew of doing…it was during these times that I gained insights on the authenticity of uncapping the soul.
So rain became and remains my light-filled time of reflection-led projections of walking in multiple universes as enhancement of seeing the other sides more clearly.
Rain light has come to me brighter than sun light, as it also denotes Spring as a time to hear the whisper of the songs of our humanity…the thawed souls after ice…the landing on other sides…the taste of space and knowledge that with the power of soul, anything is possible — don’t give up the fight!
Originally published at medium.com