There is nothing quite like the first good warm spring rain.

With careful observation, you know which one it is.  It rumbles in after one of the first good warm days of spring.  You can feel its presences as it gathers and collects in the western sky.

Physically, it is sometimes hard to distinguish.  Sometimes it is pierced by thunder and lightening.  Other times, it just slowly falls to the ground in intermintent bursts, with a quiet steady light rain in between.

But you know it by the feel.  The first good, getting-the-frost-out-of-the-ground rain just has that certian feel to it.  It is the first warm rain of the year.  Other rains have that cold, wintery feel to them.  Growing up in the Upper Great Plains, when we didn’t get the ice and the line between ice and rain seemed to be more pronounced then even a couple of hundred miles south of us, we could still tell the difference.  The spring rain just felt better.

The ground knows it too.  The tulips look a little brighter.  The grass goes from it’s light green, testing the surface look to a bright green hue - almost like it is smiling at you look.

And there is just something about the smell of the first good spring rain.  Something fresh, something earthy, something that has that newness of spring, yet you get the sense that the oldness of winter and the grey of the old is still there, but slowly slipping away.

My heart always feels a little lighter with the first good spring rain.  The sights, the sounds, the smells of spring are here to stay now.  The hope that comes with it is fresh on the heels.  It won’t be long before the tractors are rolling through the fields, the cows are calving, the freshness of the countryside will feed into the cities as well.  Gardens being planted, yards greening up, spring fever hitting old and young alike.

While the first spring rain is a once a year event, some of the next couple of rains are almost just as much fun.  My challenge to you, get outside, feel the drops, and wash away the old - and welcome the spring.