Thursday, July 12, 2012

Thank God for rain!


Healing Rain

Healing rain is a real touch from God. It could be physical healing or emotional, or whatever.”
                                           Michael W. Smith

Yesterday it rained for the first time in forever and my friend, Harry, came through his quadruple by-pass surgery with aplomb. It was a good day. It's interesting to me how one's busy, sophisticated life can be shaved down to a single point when a crisis occurs. Suddenly everything we thought important recedes into the background, and we are utterly focused and fine tuned.

We've had so little rain here and so much relentless heat (as have other parts of the country), that my fig tree finally gave up the ghost, and my back yard looks like a dried-up river basin in the desert. I've tried to water the things that matter—my little garden, some newly planted crepe myrtles; and I've kept water out for the birds and squirrels and stray cats. I see them all drinking from the same basin; a heat-induced truce I suppose. Beyond that, it's too expensive to water, and not a good use of a limited resource. If this heat is 'the new normal' as scientists are suggesting, we'd better learn to conserve water.

We cooked supper last night for the latest team of tornado volunteers—this time from an island named 'Pass-A-Grill' in Florida. We asked how the place got such an odd name. They told us there once was a fisherman who set up a make-shift grill on the beach. There, he cooked seafood to sell. His grill was a landmark that Portuguese sailors used to locate 'the pass beyond the grill'. Who knows whether that account is factual; the important thing is that it makes for a good story. The volunteers were sun-reddened from working in the Alabama heat—seems strange for Floridians to come to Alabama and get sunburned.

Harry will no doubt feel like a new man with his better, stronger heart. Still, the rest of us will watch over him, hover you might say. No one was prepared for Harry to go to his final rest in such a quicksilver way. He's the 'health-nut' among us. It's just not right.

I hope your day is filled with healing rain. It will be a pleasure to walk in its cool aftermath.

                                           In the spirit,
                                          Jane

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