The Smell of Soil and Rain

I was born and raised around Seattle.  Nicknamed the Rain City.  Most of my adult life has been in Maine where the sun shines more days than not.  Rain comforts me.  I love the smell early in the morning as I step out into my yard wearing polkadot rubber boots and my more serious LLBean rain jacket.  Did you know that that smell has a name?  Petrichor.  The JoyfulMicrobe.com tells me it's caused by a molecule, geosmin, created by soil-dwelling bacteria.  As the rain falls it creates air pockets which contain small amounts of this molecule.  The air pockets trap and then release geosmin, dispersing into the air and up our noses.  Why would they do this?  To attract invertebrates called springtails to carry the microbial spores to new locations.  We are just the grateful bystanders.  The smell of rain.  And the sound.  I remember once meditating with a group of zen-types at a Buddhist Retreat center in New Hampshire.  The bra-shaped giant conference center where we usually practiced, was busy.  Two bulbous connected domes full of people on silent retreat.  I was attending a mini-meditation series and that night it was pouring out as we sat to meditate in an alternative building. The rain was banging on the ceiling so loud it was distracting.  Or magical.  Maybe even musical.  And so in Buddhist fashion we meditated on the sound of the rain. In Tibetan mythology Lumo is the sky goddess of rain and mist.  In Green mythology, Zeus was the God of Rain.  He gave rain to water the crops of mortals in response to their prayers.  Well he also took the rain away because he wanted to force them to pray but you get the picture.  The smell and sound of rain, gentle and life giving as I nod to the morning showers watering the grass seed we planted yesterday.