Skip to main content

How the smell of rain makes you feel

The smell of rain brings out the earthiness of the world around me. I feel fresh and renewed. I feel connected to the world around me, especially if I have been caught in the rain myself. While I love the warmth of sunny day, the smell before the rain fills me with wonder. People before haven't believed me when I've said I could smell that it was going to rain, but I swear that I can (although here in Ireland it would be hard to prove because it's seemingly always going to rain).

The smell before the rain makes me wide-eyed and childlike. I love to watch the rain, water droplets forming on everything around me and the world being painted a new color and the clean yet earthy smell before the rain lets me know that soon I will get to see these things. Soon I can splash like a child as I walk through puddles. Soon I can wear my lovely blue raincoat and be out among the droplets, dry as I please. Then the rain smells smells like wonder and anticipation.

During the rain, I don't smell as much. Perhaps that's because I'm often inside or bustling about to somewhere so I don't take the time to smell the rain. I feel it though. Hitting my raincoat and my legs and even the top of my head if it's simply too warm to keep the hood up. It usually gets on some of my hair, forming beautiful little droplets or completely soaking it and making it beautifully curly. Even in the worst storms, I remember getting completely drenched with a dear friend and just roaring in laughter as I stepped deliberately in a puddle because how could we possibly get any more wet? Then the rain smells like beauty and memories.

There's also something satisfying about watching the rain come down from inside. Being cuddled up under fluffy covers with a mug of hot cocoa and just watch the world drink it all in, listen to gentle roar of rain hitting the pavement, the roof, the ground. I feel safe and cozy. And then rain smells like chocolate and sugar and milk and warmth.

After the rain is the smell I love the best. The world is fresh and crystals of water droplets that gleam in the sunshine. I take as many photos as I can without ruining the knees of my jeans in the damp earth. Everything shines brighter after the rain. Everything smells more alive after the rain. I still get to even splash in puddles like a child if I want. I can still get my hair that rain misted look if I just gently pull on a tree branch. And then the leftover rain smells like all of the things it did before.

The smell of rain can make me feel so many things. It can make me feel like a child filled with awe, like some of my fondest memories, like a rain-soaked beauty, like someone wrapped in comfort and safety, and all of these things all at once.

(Prompt by Matthew Smith)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

15 facts I learned from a random Wikipedia article

Original prompt: click on "Random Wikipedia Article" and write about whatever comes up (you can try 3 times and pick your favorite). For the record, I got Alejandro Estivill , Fencing at the 2011 Pan American Games – Women's épée , and Benjamin F. Jonas . I chose Benjamin F. Jonas because it was the longest of the three entries and it had a photo. He was born in Kentucky, moved to Illinois as a kid, and went to college and spent the rest of his life in Louisiana Jonas's father was a merchant and lawyer His father knew Lincoln (like they were real buds) Despite this, Jonas sided with the confederacy Not only did he side with the confederacy, but he joined the Confederate army and rose to the rank of major He went to University of Louisiana (now Tulane) Jonas was Jewish (I didn't know there were Jewish senators who served the Confederacy) He was the second Jewish U.S. Senator from Louisiana and the third Jewish Senator overall Jonas was the first Ashkenazi Jewish US...

Origin story or first issue of a superhero whose super power is geometry

Arya sat in history class and was bored. She longed to get to geometry, where things made more sense. She liked geometry so much that she had joined the math team to be able to do it more. Okay, there was also the extra time with her friends who loved math as much as she did, but some of the appeal was just the math itself. Finally the bell rang and Arya had four minutes to get to her geometry class. She passed right by the chemistry class next door where her least favorite teacher was conducting experiments. He needed to be more careful, thought Arya. The teacher had once exploded a glass beaker and not on purpose. Arya took her seat and excitedly pulled out her notebook. It was her favorite color: hot pink. She assigned her notebook and folder colors in ways that felt right to her. And since geometry was her favorite subject, she made her notebook and folder for it her favorite color. As the teacher started to go over the most common mistakes from the last quiz, Arya could've swo...

Color palette

Original prompt: "Google "color palette," pick one, and write something inspired by it." I actually Googled "color palette public domain" to be sure I could use it and found the image on this post. I used the "floral" section for my inspiraiton. The soft sunlight somehow didn't dim the shine of the fireflies. Such it was in the fae realm. Fern loved this time of day in the faewild where it wasn't quite day, but it was far from night. Fern frolicked alone in the glade as she was want to do. It didn't matter to her that her laughter carried itself alone on the breeze; she was content. She wasn't sure how long she'd been alone as she watched the suns begin to set, but it was pleasant in its own way. But then, she heard a noise. It wasn't the noise of leaves on the wind or twigs snapping from some comforting creature. It was the noise of someone approaching with grim determination. Fern wasn't sure how to ready herself to ...