Some people feel the rain, others just get wet

The unlimited wisdom of Miller’s quote

The meaning of some people feel the rain, others just get wet

Some people feel the rain, others just get wet. It would be a dream to claim personal craftsmanship of such beautiful words, but it would also be a monstrosity because they were actually coined by American singer Roger Miller.

The quote that is the center of our attention today also reminds me of Socrates’s famous ”The unexamined life is not woth living.”

How do you see the rain? Is it the joyful tears of God or what is left of Satan’s shower? Does it playfully smack you on the head like a 4-year-old, or does it ruin the hard-earned glossiness of your hair? Is it that oppourtunist bully that happens to be there every time you forget to bring an umbrella, or is it that refreshingly unpredictable visitor that reminds you that life is a surprise as much as it is a plan? After all, your very existence is a surprise.

Some people feel the rain. They do not just exist. they are conscious of their existence. If they lived in a picture, they would be mindful enough to know they were part of it — not all of it. They would step outside the frame and see how their own reflection seamlessly merges with the other elements. Such a lucky bunch are good observers.

Other people just get wet. They are stuck in the frame and they are not even aware of it. Things tend to happen to them. Worse, only bad things tend to happen to them. They do not live; life goes through them, as if they were some ghost-humans whose creation was the result of a half-successful attempt at replicating the Frankenstein experiment.

Putting some people feel the rain, others just get wet into practice

In this article, we are going to feel the rain, not just get wet. We are going to open our senses and creativity to our surroundings. This is the only way to honour and unravel the wisdom of such a deep quote. I am going to take pictures of some of the everyday things I take for granted and focus on feeling them instead of just going through them.

Let it rain ideas!

Some people feel the rain, others just get wet

The sky

I cannot tell you how many times I looked at the sky and thought of nothing else other than where I was heading – most certainly, the gym or the grocery store. However, deciding to write this article opened new dimensions in my consciousness. I could finally see in 3D.

How does the sky speak to you in this picture, I wonder? Let me go first so you have some time to think!

I do not believe in angels; looking at the picture, however, I would like to do so at least this once. It brings me immense pleasure to think of the two white lines in the top left corner of the picture as wings of an angel. Is that why the weather was so gentle that day; because humanity was under the wings of something – or someone – only known in the the most sacred books?

How about the prominent vertical line in the middle of the picture? Is it a spear that was thrust in the angel’s wing as it was trying to protect the planet from an attack by distant, evil, yet-to-be-known species that see humans as a threat?

We may never know what we are really looking at, but let us all just be glad that we can enjoy such lovely scenery.

Plants

In sight, out of mind

I am as much ashamed as I am honest in saying that I have been walking by this small garden for several years, but not once did I pay attention to it. I might have looked at it once or twice, but I was never really conscious of it – as if it was not there at all.

Now, let me share my thoughts with you on the tiny earthlings you are looking at. I will also be happy to read yours in the comment section.

Flowers with different personalities

Looking at the picture, colour is the first thing that catches my attention. Purple, white and orange. The white flowers are so bold (or maybe got so mad because nobody was paying attention to them!) that they stuck their heads over the railing! Why did the purple and orange flowers not do the same? Have they already tried to do so but failed to draw a smile on any human’s face? If so, why are the white flowers trying? Have they not learnt from other fellow flowers, or are they just like humans – rarely learn from others’ mistakes that they end up making them, too?

There is something about the orange flowers..

How about the orange flowers? Why are they hunching over? Is it modesty or shyness? Maybe even self-conscioussness because their size is so tiny, unlike the others? What I learnt is to never underestimate anything based on size. Some of the world’s deadliest plants and animals are incredibly small.

I actually find the orange flowers the cutest. They are not as audacious as the white flowers nor as space-domineering as the purple ones. They are just there – quiet. Yet, so beautiful.

Flowers as the perfect role model for humans

When I take all these flowers into consideration, it brings humans to my mind. These flowers are different in colour, height and character. Yet, they all enjoy a peaceful coexistence. They share the same sun, soil and water, but they never hurt each other. I wish humans were the same.

Animals

This black-and-white bird has been part of my everyday life in my host country, but I never really cared to know its name or appreciate how it added so much liveliness to the stillness of the garden.

This is the ”magpie”. It is actually one of the world’s most intelligent animals! They can recognise their own reflection in the mirror, imitate human speech, play games, work in teams and even mourn the death of fellow magpies in funerals!

The way the magpie is standing in the sunlight and looking away from the camera makes me feel unwelcome; I am intruding on his meditative reveries.

Let us leave the magpie to his sweet solitude.

Drinks

Coffee. Can you believe that it actually helped me debunk the big myth of equality?

I brewed this espresso with the cheapest espresso machine I could buy. Never judge the value of things by how many coins you get for them in return. I bet you have never enjoyed an espresso that looks anywhere near this one!

The espresso, though without a head, has hands – hands it is meditating with. Alternatively, the espresso could be thanking me for bringing it into existence to enjoy the crazy rides in my digestive system. Do you know of any rides as steep as a human’s food pipe? Have you heard of any slides as dangerously curvy as the intestines? Not a chance!

An Angelo Moriondo from Turin, Italy, was the first man to obtain a patent for the espresso machine.

Food

Highlight of my day

This is the first time I share my secret and most powerful weapon with the public. If I am to stuff this in my stomach first thing in the morning, I know for certain I could break a tank in half if I felt like it. What you are looking at is one of the best things that could ever happen to me on any given day.

Wait — what is a plant doing on my table?

Looking at the picture, I am noticing something I have never noticed though it has always been there — what is a plant doing on my breakfast table?

I am talking about the plant in the vase, not the one on top of my fried egg. Why do so many restaurants put plants on tables? Does it have any effect on the customer? If so, what is it?

After doing some research, it seems that biophilism (the love of everything that is ”living”, including plants) is on the rise. The presence of living things like plants seems to make both customers and employees more relaxed.

Now the plant makes sense!

Beans for breakfast: serious business in the north, joke in the south

As for the food you are looking at, it is pretty much the vegetarian version of English breakfast. While beans for breakfast is very ”duh” in England, people where I come from find it quite silly. In fact, they often joke about someone acting unusually foolish because they had beans for breakfast!

Straws? For what?

The black straws in my drinks are also catching my attention for the first time. Why do we need straws to drink if we can do without them? It would make more sense to use straws if we were drinking from a closed takeaway cup. So, basically, the café just wasted the straws. To all straw lovers out there, why do you not use straws to drink your soup?

The most nutritious breakfast in the world

On a final note, English breakfast, especially the vegetarian one, is the most nutritious breakfast you could ever have.

Shapes

How many times have you thought twice about your silhouette except when you were a six-year-old?

I took this picture on the way back home. The sun is exposing my dark side to the world. The truth always comes to light, right?

Not necessarily.

Sometimes, the truth stays hidden forever. Just check the number of unsolved crime cases and you will come to the bitter realisation.

Is my dark, shadow self part of me or a completely separate entity? If I were to believe the biblical account of good and bad, my shadow self is a separate entity because the bible calls it ”Satan”, forever whispering and conniving and plotting to ensure my getting a chair beside him in hell. I guess even Satan does not like feeling lonely!

On the other hand, if I were to use my own logic, I would rather say that my shadow self is part of me. I am human, and humans are neither ”good” nor ”bad”, they are just what they are: animals with different personalities. Some of them like to do more ”good” to the world, others more ”bad”. However, you still find some ”bad” in good people and ”good” in bad people. In a nutshell, we are both, and so we are neither.

Final word on some people feel the rain, others just get wet

I am absolutely sure that Roger Miller would have agreed with me that the quote was not meant to be taken just literally. Its wisdom is transferrable to everything we see, touch, hear and smell.

While it may not be practical to feel the rain, not just get wet all the time (our consciousness is flooded with our nine-to-five jobs, social lives and stressing over things that may never happen), we can still make time for it. Personally, I would like to start doing this more often, especially on Sundays.

Remember to feel the rain — and that it does not get to rain all the time, so you better enjoy it while you can.