Books
13 Ways To Not Let April Showers Get You Down
There are about a million cliche quotes about rain, most of which we've all heard time and time again. But this doesn't exactly stop that feeling of dread when you wake up to find it pouring in the morning. You think immediately of your hair, your long walk, or the drive that will inevitably take double the time it should. Yet somehow, according to the incredibly wise words of Luke Bryan, "Rain is a good thing." In the words of the cliché we've heard since we were 5 years old, "April showers bring May flowers." Here are 13 quotes about rain from books and writers who were able to see all the good rain can bring with it, including those May flowers.
There seems to be a consensus about how we should feel towards rain, but no matter how much I listen to Luke Bryan, you won't find me smiling when a car flies by, covering me with puddle water. It just won't happen. But rainy days do have their upsides. The rain gives you an excuse to wear rain boots, and there are so many to pick from! And have you seen some of the raincoats lately? Gone are the ugly yellow rain slickers, in with a deluge of colorful plastic coats you'll actually want to wear. It gives you a reason to stay inside all day.
And, of course, the rain always comes to an end. A subtle hint that everything can and will get better, and spring is the perfect reminder of that. Yes, we have to deal with the endless rain that April brings with it, but we also know that around the corner lies warm weather, sun, and yes, okay, those flowers, too.
1. “Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards.”
—Vladimir Nabokov
2. “On the fifth day, which was a Sunday, it rained very hard. I like it when it rains hard. It sounds like white noise everywhere, which is like silence but not empty.”
—The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time, Mark Haddon
3. "“Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book.”
—Bill Watterson
4. “From where we stand the rain seems random. If we could stand somewhere else, we would see the order in it.
—Tony Hillerman
5. “Being soaked alone is cold. Being soaked with your best friend is an adventure.”
—Emily Wing
6. “The only noise now was the rain, pattering softly with the magnificent indifference of nature for the tangled passions of humans.”
—Sherwood Smith
7. “Rain didn't make things messy. People did that all on their own.”
—Barbara Delinsky
8. “Colors shone with exceptional clarity in the rain. The ground was a deep black, the pine branches a brilliant green, the people wrapped in yellow looking like special spirits that were allowed to wander over the earth on rainy mornings only.”
—Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami
9. “Some of my pleasantest hours were during the long rain-storms in the spring or fall, which confined me to the house for the afternoon as well as the forenoon, soothed by their ceaseless roar and pelting; when an early twilight ushered in a long evening in which many thoughts had time to take root and unfold themselves."
—Henry David Thoreau
10. “At night I dream that you and I are two plants that grew together, roots entwined, and that you know the earth and the rain like my mouth, since we are made of earth and rain.”
—Pablo Neruda
11.“The richness of the rain made me feel safe and protected; I have always considered the rain to be healing — a blanket — the comfort of a friend. Without at least some rain in any given day, or at least a cloud or two on the horizon, I feel overwhelmed by the information of sunlight and yearn for the vital, muffling gift of falling water.”
–Douglas Coupland
12. The rain makes still pools on the sidewalkThe rain makes running pools in the gutterThe rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at nightAnd I love the rain.”
—"April Rain Song," Langston Hughes
13. "Getting caught in the warm, wet deluge that particular day in that terrible summer ... taught me to understand rain, not to dread it. There were going to be days, I knew, when it would pour without warning, days when I'd find myself without an umbrella. But my understanding would act as my all-purpose slicker and rubber boots. It was preparing me for stormy weather, arming me with the knowledge that no matter how hard it seemed, it couldn't rain forever."
—Antwone Quenton Fisher
