Words don’t grab it. Roasty days, kids with sweaty foreheads and dirty nails. Grass brown and parched enough to skewer a birthday balloon. Sun, grand and proud and framed in abundant blue. Pools become priceless, sprinklers work like heck. Kids and land and plants are wildly thirsty.
School kids must bring water bottles, parents assured that at least: we won’t let them dehydrate. A Midwestern parent says a prayer of thanks because even though it’s dry and hot, we’ve got access to water and our kids are safe.
Farmers worry on low yields. What they worry on, so should you. Today, the average U.S. farmer feeds 155 people.* A scorching drought spells trouble for each of those folks and families. High prices, high demand – it’s all a part of what happens when there isn’t enough.
Earlier this year, ranchers faced a hay shortage due to dry conditions in the west. To feed their cattle, hay was trucked in from places further east. This means a larger carbon footprint, whopping fuel costs and precious time and energy. This harsh path simply feeds the cattle. When the food itself finally reaches your family, you’ve missed the struggle but perhaps you’ve paid for it.
Rain, it seems, could have trickled its saturating goodwill all along the food chain.
Begging, pleading, soul-selling praying is underway in Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico where levels are “Exceptional”, the top of the heap for drought ratings according to the US Drought Monitor. You see, it doesn’t get any worse than this, particularly now when flames are fanning wildly across the region. It’s not only dry, it’s on fire in every sense of the word.
Rain, it seems, would offer a swollen sense of relief for these families.
This morning, we woke to rain in Illinois. It shed down the driveway and spattered in through the screen door, dampening the wood floor and soaking a rug. My daughter and I smiled at this. She used her umbrella (which has been a soccer-game parasol for weeks) and walked through puddles on her way to preschool. We need it, we all say to each other: the school secretary, the cable man, my neighbor wanting garden-fresh peppers.
Most Americans live in a comfortable world of air conditioners, heaters, water abundant enough to swim and water lawns. We tend to grouch at the TV when the weatherman gives it to us: it’s not nice out today.
To really feel the Earth, and understand how much we truly rely upon her, we need to pause from this behavior and look at our natural connectors, the things that bind humans to Earth. Rain is one of them.
As I finish this piece, the sun’s burning through a bleached white sky. This rain is likely over. Don’t know when we’ll get more. Until then, I’ll take note of what Earth does offer be it sun, or clouds or something else. I’ll say a prayer of thanks for whatever falls from the sky.
How do you view a rainy day in your country or geographic location?
This is an original post to World Moms Blog by Jill Barth of Illinois, USA.
*According to Illinois Farm Bureau.
Photo credit to Karl on Sea. This photo has a creative commons attribution license.
A very interesting article!
This summer in Norway there has been so much rain that the potato harvest isn’t looking too good… (They are actually concerned about the chips/crisps production for the next year) It has been one of the wettest summers ever recorded, but that also means that electricity prices will be at a record low this winter (most of our electricity is generated from water).
Thanks for sharing your perspective. Interested to hear what’s happening in Norway and how it impacts the families there and across the globe.
Can definitely relate to this. Israel is known for its droughts. From June to October rain is almost non existent. Even our winters in past years have been really mild.
Thanks for your comment. How do people act when a big rain does come during the summer months? Is there excitement, chatter, speculation?
I like the bigger picture that is unveiled in this post. Rain is not about the minor inconveniences it may cause in your day. It’s part of a greater good. Smile at the rain!
Thanks for making me think, Jill!
Jen:)
Thanks for reading, Jen!
With gratitude mostly and thanks. Although with a bit of worry when there is the first rain as the roads are very slippery from the oil.
I love the rain! Jakarta has been really hot lately we barely have any rain…but with the rain comes the flooding and the traffic jam.
I guess people all over the world become worse drivers in the rain! You should see Chicago in a downpour — brake lights all the way! Thanks for sharing.
I think the more we are connected to our food (in terms of gardening, farming and really *knowing* where it comes from) the more we appreciate the need for all the variations there are in the weather. Our plum tree, which has always blossomed exactly in tune with the seasons for the last nine years, was late to flower this year – it’s going to be interesting to see if we are in for a colder or wetter summer than usual.
Thanks for mentioning this. It might be a good annual project, a nod to the plum tree as a climate indicator. Something to think about as the years go by.
Where I come from (Poland) rain used to be a normal thing all year long. Of course it rained more during the Fall and just a little bit during the Summer but things has changed. In 1997 in the middle of Summer we had a few months of terrible rain… every single day… it flooded almost half of the country and the lost we got was terrifying. People lost homes, apartments and all their belongings. Major cities were under the water. Since that Summer almost every single year there is a flood in Poland or flood danger. When it starts to rain people get nervous.
When I moved to California I wasn’t expecting that much rain either. The first year I got here it had rained almost for 4 months straight. When I heard in the news that California finally have enough of water supply I was shocked. After 4 months of rain the entire Poland, Slovakia and Czech would be already flooded…. and here… people are happy and would mind even more rain.
It’s such an interesting thing how in different regions of the World people see the rain through a different perspectives.
Great post Jill! It is so hot and dry here in MN. 93 yesterday. We desperately need rain!!!! Yet the leaves that are still hanging are spectacular.