"April Showers"

I feel like I might be starting to understand more about how to manipulate the placement of sound in my mouth while singing, and remembering open my mouth wider. It might be a long time before any of this seems natural, but I can tell it's working when the sound changes to something different, easier, wider-sounding. And I don't feel so much change when I come to my break point.

I love rain, weather of all kinds. Wind is pretty fabulously wonderful, too. Not that weather doesn't scare me from time to time, but I'm always in awe of it: weather is the easiest way to tell that we live on a planet, spinning its way through space, and we are not in control, here. Earthquakes, volcanoes, and hurricanes are more dramatic representations of this, but it doesn't take much more than a good rain storm to bring it to my mind.

I love the whole sensuality of weather. Visually, the fast movement of clouds against the sky is amazing. White clouds against a dark night sky even more so. The taste of wind and rain on my face, in my mouth, the sounds of thunder, rain on the roof or tent above my head. The smell before the rain, and during the rain, fresh or bitter or electric. And the feel of rain on skin is magical, especially a summer rain. When I was younger, and less employed, you could not keep me away from running through the summer rain for anything else. Except perhaps the sound of drumming.

Once, in that magical once upon a time I mentioned, I had it all. A storm was coming, and the sky was weirdly, amazingly, green. Lightning had begun, dramatic and beautiful, and the power went out in the building where we were all dancing to live music. The drummers never stopped pounding out the heart beat and the dance beat on the congas and djembes and talking drum inside, the doors were wide open in the early summer warmth, and we ran out into the parking lot, to dance barefoot on the blacktop while the lightning flashed around us. It was my birthday week, and I can't remember any presents I got that beat the gift of that night.

This past summer I've tried to get out in the rain more. Running has certainly helped that resolve. And if I have to run in the rain to get my exercise, it's a handy by-product to remember once again that being in the rain is another way to just feel good.