\n<\/p>\n
T<\/span>here\u2019s a lot of complaining about the weather currently and I get it, it\u2019s wet. Here in York the river is getting above itself yet again and the council has fenced off large puddles in the park for health and safety reasons, to widespread mockery. Things currently taking in water include the letterbox (yesterday the postman told me with a manic laugh that he was leaving for the Philippines), the hens, my shoes and our car, which is growing moss around the windows. On the inside.<\/p>\n But does it merit all the moaning? I don\u2019t mean farmers, for whom it\u2019s a catastrophe, flood victims or the poor folk of Cardinham, North Wyke and Astwood Bank, who endured a biblical 40 days straight of rain. They\u2019re entitled to rend their garments and corral their pets into boats, two by two. But maybe the rest of us, just dealing with it being \u201cquite wet\u201d, could get a grip. When life gives you rain, make rain-ade (do not drink rain; it\u2019s full of forever chemicals)! After all \u2013 OK, not the cheeriest thought \u2013 this could be as good as it gets in future, given accelerating climate breakdown. At the very least, these wet patches will probably happen more often, so we need coping strategies. Here are mine.<\/p>\n Romanticise it Use it as a wellness hack Write a rain song Get crafty Contemplate the CPE Invent a rain ritual Reassess your rain wardrobe Treat the rain as an all-you-can-hear Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR)<\/strong> buffet Revolt Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There\u2019s a lot of complaining about the weather currently and I get it, it\u2019s wet. Here in York the river is getting above itself yet again and the council has fenced off large puddles in the park for health and safety reasons, to widespread mockery. Things currently taking in water include the letterbox (yesterday the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[12118,6034,2519,1896,1915,132,4707],"class_list":{"0":"post-44547","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-beddington","9":"tag-emma","10":"tag-grip","11":"tag-learn","12":"tag-lets","13":"tag-live","14":"tag-rain"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/44548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/strong>Romanticising is rife \u2013 we\u2019re constantly exhorted to bring Byronic main character energy to the most mundane corners of our lives. And it\u2019s easy to romanticise rain: brooding sky and lashing droplets are inherently romantic! Lean in \u2013 wear something ethereal, put on some Sigur R\u00f3s and stare at it enigmatically, like an unreliable female narrator in a Netflix mystery miniseries.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>In 2024, the BBC explained that the negative ions created by rainfall may \u201chelp to relieve stress and even boost our energy levels\u201d, which sounds like something an influencer holding a tiny microphone would say about a juice cleanse they\u2019re trying to sell you, but rain is free. Add that to your gratitude journal.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>There are great rain songs: by Prince, Eurythmics, Garbage, Rihanna \u2026 But why not make the weather your muse and compose your own? Rain has great rhymes \u2013 bane, pain, slain, vein, arcane \u2013 we\u2019re halfway to a 70s prog rock epic already! Also, take a moment to be grateful it isn\u2019t raining men \u2013 we have enough of those.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>Japanese teru teru<\/em> <\/em>b\u014dzu<\/em> <\/em>dolls are DIY charms traditionally hung outside doors and windows to try to manifest good weather. They look really easy to make \u2013 it\u2019s basically white tissue paper tied with red string with a face drawn on. Can\u2019t hurt, right?<\/p>\n
<\/strong>That\u2019s the Carnian Pluvial Episode, when it rained for two million years. OK, it didn\u2019t actually, but it was a period of significant global warming where it rained a lot<\/em>. Way more than now. If sauropods managed two million years of the CPE, we can probably tough it out for a few more weeks.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>We\u2019ve been trying to ward off bad weather for millennia: one Roman anti-hail ritual involved crucifying an owl (please don\u2019t do that). Less disturbingly, Japan\u2019s mizudome-no-mai<\/em> rain-stopping festival involves playing conch shells; Balinese rain stoppers pray, mediate and burn incense. Over to you.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>People say there\u2019s no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes. But what does that mean, concretely? Maybe a poncho that makes you look like a slice of watermelon or a giraffe would help? Or maybe it\u2019s time to dance naked in the rain, per the Blue Pearl 90s dance track (maybe it\u2019s not).<\/p>\n
<\/strong>People love tapping noises and right now, you\u2019re enjoying unlimited tapping on your windows, without targeted ads.<\/p>\n
<\/strong>Think about water companies releasing raw sewage into waterways (181 alerts last Monday) because they haven\u2019t invested in infrastructure to cope with the rainfall. Will it stop them declaring a drought this summer? Probably not, because they haven\u2019t invested in infrastructure! Then think about Donald Trump triumphantly rolling back US climate change policy. Think hard, then take to the streets. Maybe also bring a brolly.<\/p>\n