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We have many words for rain in Southeast Alaska where precipitation falls 236 days of the year. 

Atmospheric river feels like a new one this year and has been used on way too regular of a basis.

Here are some others:

  • Rain rain
  • Showers
  • Drizzle
  • Heavy rain
  • Deluge
  • Sprinkling
  • Downpour
  • Mist
  • Mostly cloudy
  • Scattered showers
  • Fog
  • Sucker Hole

Sucker hole isn't officially a word for rain, but it is a patch of blue sky that appears and woos you outside unprepared for the deluge to follow when you are at the farthest point from your home. 

Today was "windy with drenching rain." I hiked and had to swim through one section. I'm mostly joking. 

Rain can wear on you, but I love the theology of baptism so much that rain feels like a gift in much the same way baptism is. The Christian rite of baptism is about immersing one into a new way of seeing and living in this world. It is dying to a self-absorbed life and rising to an interconnected communion of being. Like rain it can be lovely; like rain it can screw up your day.

But when the water is dripping down my face and the trail is a river, I give thanks for the reminder of my baptismal identity as a beloved child of God and I get to live as someone who is loved and I get to love others. It's not always comfortable, but definitely an adventure.

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