'The Rain and Everything' is at once a tribute, an affirmation, and a guide. The stories will reach inside you where you live. The writer's experiences are rich and her wisdom is strong. She shares her foundation stone and the secret of her inner strength, learned at her mother's knee. Along the way, poetry will encourage you to face life's adversities with courage. Some words trickle as soft as rain and others crackle like thunder. The style will carry you along as she relays the stories of heroes both big and small, two footed and four footed, that she met along the way. The wisdom of her words forms an ellipse through both the practical and the clinically mad. Her nursing career brought her face to face with the homeless and the homicidal. You will cheer her perseverance and shed tears at the injustices she encountered. This is a volume that you will reach for often. You will ponder and you will appreciate what is good in your world. Roll up your shirtsleeves, pour yourself a cold drink and dive in. Reading Maria Jordan is like skipping stones across a lake on a summer day. There is love and affirmation to be found between these covers.