RAINDROPS KEEP FALLIN' ON MY HEAD

The joy of a gentle rain in the morning, those little misty drops that encourage your face to turn upward to be caressed by the water. That was what greeted me this yummy morning. I am not an umbrella person. I probably tried to be when I was a chic (give me a break!) urbanite living in downtown Chicago. But years of wrestling with inverted umbrellas, caused me to abandon the practice with the comment, "I won't melt." After all, eventually we drip dry.

As the drops swelled, I watched them from my veranda and thought how much like these drops we each are. Each drop, unique in itself, plummets from the heavens to earth with a mission: enrich and nourish the planet, enliven it, make it better. And after the mission is accomplished, the drop evaporates back to the heavens only to begin again as a different drop.

Obviously, here is a clue to my belief in the afterlife: reincarnation of sorts. What sort, I do not know. But I know that energy does not die and energy is what we are; I know that all the souls that ever were or ever will be stood together at Sinai; and I know that we can never accomplish all that needs to be accomplished in one lifetime.

So I look at each of us as individual, unique drops, choosing a mission here on this planet. Hopefully, during our lifetimes we nourish it and enrich it. And when it is time to pass, our energy returns to the source (from stardust to stardust) and we renourish spiritually until we choose to come back to earth for another mission or tour of duty. This works for me. I am not asking you to agree with me, just pause and think about how this resonates for you.

Let me close with a blessing inspired by Martin Buber:

My God, I thank you for my life, body and soul;
help me realize that I am something new,
someone who never existed before;
someone original and unique in the world.

For if there had ever been someone like me,
there would have been no need for me to exist.

Let us go forth today to nourish the world.