What's in a name?

Why does rain have bad connotations? Must it always be associated with gloom? Tears mimic rain cascading from the cloudy skies.

Rain brings fresh breezes and cleansing water. Rain washes away the dust and gifts children with mud puddles for play. Rain fills the wells to slake the thirst and feeds the flora, bringing the abundance we need to thrive. Rain makes the world vivid and green. At the end of the storm, rain leaves promise in a rainbow.

I am rain -- the bringer of sadness and the giver of life, the pounding storm and the harmonious patter, the cruel vengeance of the flood and the cooling drizzle on a steamy day. I am the driving rain that batters ships on Thassa. I am the constant mist of the rain forest.

I have been ridiculed for my name -- its unsubtle play on words -- but I would not trade it for all the world. It was the name dreamed by a boy singer who had blades shoved into his hands and destiny hung from his shoulders like a yoke. It was the name of hope for him. Abu. My father. My Ubar.

I am Raine -- Raine Storm -- my daddy's little girl, the Jewel of Schendi on some lips, the eye of the storm, the shelter from the storm, a righteous pillar of tradition, a cunning child of the jungle, and a maker of music.

Someone told me long ago
There's a calm before the storm.
I know; it's been coming for some time
When it's over, so they say,
It'll rain a sunny day.
I know; shinin' down like water.

I want to know, have you ever seen the rain?
I want to know, have you ever seen the rain
Comin' down on a sunny day?

Yesterday, and days before,
Sun is cold and rain is hard.
I know; been that way for all my time.
Till forever on it goes
Through the circle fast and slow.
I know; it can't stop, I wonder.

I want to know, have you ever seen the rain?
I want to know, have you ever seen the rain
Comin' down on a sunny day

Have You Ever Seen the Rain by JC Fogerty (c) 1970