Rain or shine...

I could always wake up to the sun peeking through my window.

I can love forever the sunny day that makes me walk an extra 70 steps and four flights of stairs instead of a few steps just so I can bask in its gloriousness for just a little bit longer. I can love forever the kind of love that the sun rises and sets on my heart.

I can't help but be thankful for the sun's high temperature and density in its core that allows for strong nuclear force to overcome the repulsion of protons; for the four protons fused into a Helium nucleus that releases a burst of energy I like to call sunshine. I can't help but be in awe of how a single ray of light is a miracle far beyond our intelligence, comprehension, and all of the above.

A single ray of light can bring a whole world so much joy. There's so much joy in a single ray of light that the sun can't help but share all that it can.

I think what I love most about the sun is how it makes me love everything else around me. The light that bounces off each and every blade of grass brings an even brighter green to my eyes. I love how a sunny, cloudless day can stretch the sky even further. Above all, I think I love that it's one of the things I can share with every one else in the world.

I think we can all understand then why there's a song about children asking the rain to go away, and one for the sunshine making us happy when skies are gray. The rain brings about the clouds that sink lower and have lost all colors from the heaviness of its weight. Nobody goes outside to watch the grass get duller, or walk those extra flights of stairs to walk in the rain.

But our love for the sun should stretch our hearts and extend it to a crying sky. Without the rain, there would be no flowers for light waves to bounce around on and color. There would be no flowers to attract and, therefore, orchestrate the sound of butterflies flapping their wings, the buzzing of the bees, and singing of the birds. There would be no flowers to color notes of I love yous and I'm sorrys among loved ones.

The truth is, it's not always going to be a sunny day. On the other hand, we also know that the rain won't last forever. But I think, what I have to always remember is that rain or shine, the sun remains constant, still, always shining whether we see it or not. Rain or shine, even if our love for the flowers, the grass, the birds, and whatever is around us changes, the way the sun gives to the world and dies for the world never will.

This is a love that the rain pours into our hearts. It's the wisdom in knowing that while the sun allows everything to shine, the rain nurtures, waters, and renews all that we love -- all that we are and all that we can be. With every drop, the rain shows a forgiving sun, a sun that allows its sky to cry. The rain shows that behind its gray face, the sun is there.

To love when it's easy and when it's not is to recognize that rain or shine, love prevails. The good prevails. The goodness that can only be found in love is not one we can say begins with the sun and ends with the rain. When we realize that it is neither the sunshine nor the rain that we await, long for, and need, but rather the life both elements sustain -- we find the strength to dance in the rain, to wait for the clearer skies, and, above all, to love and so to live. Love is both the ray of sunshine and the drop of rain.

Rain or shine, Love is what gives and grows.