Learning a new word

 Robert Macfarlane taught me the word “nele,” which comes from the Salish language of the Pacific Northwest and Columbia Plateau. It means: 

a heavy mist falling as a gentle rain, a “grandmother” rain, healing to a deep degree: also the word for “love.”

 

I like the word because, since moving to the Georgia Piedmont, I’ve seen rain fall more gently than I thought imaginable. It seemed healing in a strange way that was good for my spirit. But it was good for the plants in the garden too.

I also like the word because my grandmother and I used to sit on the front porch of the farm in Texas and drink coffee. The conversation was like that rainfall — so light and effortless you could barely sense it. Oct. 2 was her birthday.

• Robert Macfarlane, Landmarks; London: Penguin Books, 2016, pp. 341.