The Dry Front

There are few things that bring us joy in Central Texas like the building of clouds in the sky.

Today, the cold front was approaching and the sky was filled with big, tall billowy clouds.  The kind of clouds that could bring life giving rains.  They were beautiful to see.  Their dark mass gave us shade from the sun and kept the afternoon temperatures down.

After work I sat on my front porch and listened to the thunder and saw the flashes of lightening.  And I waited.  Waited for the sound of raindrops hitting the ground and the trees and the sidewalk.  I walked the dog and felt a drop of rain hit my face.  The wind was blowing as the storms approached the area.

I waited.  Soon the darkness set in and the thunder dissipated.  The lightening moved further away.

Once again the good rain, the rain we need so desperately stayed away from My Town and most of the county.  We could see it on the radar but it was moving away from us.

How cruel Mother Nature can be.  In her infinite wisdom, she has banished the rain and left us dry another day.  I wonder why she has abandoned us.  I wonder why she would see fit to allow tall, majestic trees to wither and die from thirst.  I wonder why she would need our soil to be barren, our gardens unable to grow.

I don't understand it nor do I have any control over Mother Nature.  We have prayed, we have begged.  We have patiently waited for the seasons to change and Fall to arrive with the cool rains of the past.

Tomorrow the front makes it through, the winds pick up and the dry weather continues.  Another high fire danger day.  One of many.  One of hundreds.

I think about the people living through that horrible decade known as the Dust Bowl years.  We are in year two, they endured ten. They endured a decade of the harshest of lives.  Many left, relocated elsewhere and missed the land's return to the green and the giving.  Many didn't survive at all.  Their stories are worthy of reading should you ever find the chance.  Documentaries allow us the opportunity to hear their words as survivors tell their stories.  I can only imagine what it was like to live in that area in that time.  I don't have to imagine what its like to live in this time, the here and now.  I find myself having to remember what a lush green lawn looks like and a time when the land was alive and growing.

Surely, God and Mother Nature will grant us mercy and good favor.  Surely, another Dust Bowl is not in the offing.  Surely.