Pluviophilia

Published December 27, 2023; updated slightly December 28, 2023

I don’t know when I first started loving the rain, but my pluviophilia became pretty evident to me sometime in the past few years. For some reason, I often used to silently hope that tomorrow it would be rainy, although, living nowhere near a coast with plenty of ocean water to evaporate, I seldom got my wishes. I think part of my love of the rain has to do with nostalgia, at least on some subconscious level. When I was younger, my parents and I used to go out to lunch at the same place every Saturday and then run errands afterward, and I would always sit there in the back seat of the car, either listening to music on my iPod touch or reading whatever book I was into at the time (most often British biographies—I was a bit of an odd twelve-year-old, to be sure) as the rain pitter-pattered on the window and I sat there, all snug in my hoodie.

Come to think of it, perhaps the feeling of coziness is one of my favourite parts of the rain. Although I seldom end up doing so, the rain, especially when I take one of my beloved rainy walks (complete with my rainy playlist on my iPod), often makes me want to snuggle up with a cup of tea, and maybe a good book, with the kind of feeling you just don’t get when it’s sunny out. And even the outside world, paradoxically, feels almost more inviting when it’s rainy compared to when it’s sunny. Sure, maybe if the weather’s just right and it’s partly cloudy, I’ll really want to go out and lay in the hammock, but, unlike sunny weather, which is maybe much brighter or darker depending on the time of day, and really feels like it should be warm so it’s bizarre when it’s sunny in winter, rain is rain. Rain feels at home anytime, anywhere.

Sunny weather has its place, of course, but I don’t think I’ll ever be one of those people singing “rain, rain, go away”. When people talk about their frustration with yet another gloomy day, I want to appreciate it. It’s calming, soothing and restful. It may not be colourful, but I am, and I think that more than makes up for it. It may get you a little wet, but (not to turn into Calvin’s father) I reckon that builds character. And at the end of the day, rain somehow just... feels like home.