Storms in the Sky, and in the Soul

Storms pass through.

Thunderstorms pass through. Noisy, dramatic, unpredictable, even frightening... but they pass and they wash many things clean.

Sometimes when the rain comes, it just falls on us and runs all through us and pours out of us. We may feel like we're drowning, really drowning, but the raging waters are washing us and enriching the soil within us, so that it might bear fruit.

Storms in the sky, storms in the soul. Contemporary singer and songwriter Sara Bareilles gives poetry and voice to an experience that never ceases to be turbulent and ardent. Her song Let the Rain is a mysterious, searching cry of the heart for the waters that make a brand new ground (click HERE to hear the whole song on Grooveshark). This verse especially resonates with me:

I hold on to worry so tight;
it's safe in here right next to my heart,
who now shouts at the top of her voice,

          "Let me go,

           let me out,

           this is not my choice."

And I always felt it before
that the world was filled with much more
than the drowning soul I've learned to be;
I just need the rain to remind me

I wanna darken in the skies
Open the floodgates up
I wanna change my mind
I wanna be enough
I want the water in my eyes
I wanna cry until the end of time

I wanna let the rain come down
Make a brand new ground

Let the rain come down.

Sara Bareilles