As I type these words, it is raining. Again.
It has been raining all week. In fact it has been raining all summer.
We have a pool and, during the summers, I regularly have to add water due to loss by evaporation and frequent cannon balls. This summer I have regularly drained water off.
A couple of weeks ago, I took a few days vacation. On the first day, when I was headed to my destination — on my motorcycle — it did not rain. When I returned six days later, it rained around me but not on me. On the days in between, it rained every day. Mostly, I saw the inside of a hotel room.
While running the risk of sounding like those who have “never remembered a time like this,” I have never remembered a time like this.
Oh, it has rained before in Georgia. I do remember the rains that washed out many roads and a number of bridges a few years back but, in my 30 years as a Georgian, I have never seen a summer where it has rained so much or at least so often. In fact, the weather report on my iPhone says that it will be raining today and every day for the next five days after that.
There are advantages to the rain, however. First of all, I don’t know of a single forest fire in our immediate area. I heard a rumor that Smokey the bear drowned in a flash flood, but that has not been confirmed.
Secondly, everything is brilliantly, beautifully, overwhelming green. Normally about this time, the grass, if one does not water it faithfully, turns a dry, dead brown.
No brown lawns anywhere that I can see. The lawns are lush, the woods are verdant, the trees are filled with leaves. Our immediate world is covered in a carpet of green and rivals Ireland at its best.
Thirdly, the lakes, rivers, and ponds are full. We are, in our neck of the woods, accustomed to drought alerts, water restrictions, and bodies of water that go increasingly low as the summer progresses.
Not this summer. This summer there is water, water everywhere and there are plenty of drops to drink. One can enjoy fishing, swimming, rafting, and boating — if one doesn’t mind doing all that in the rain.
Another benefit of the rain is that the summer seems cooler than normal. Last evening, I rode my motorcycle and it was cool enough that I bought a long-sleeved T-shirt before I returned home. Global warming, if it ever existed, has taken a holiday in our area.
August is, as any football player and band member can tell you, a brutally hot month. Normally. This is not normal. I like it. I drive with my window down, I sit on the porch for my morning coffee, I can work in the yard — when it is not raining — and not collapse from heat exhaustion.
Things will get back to normal at some point in time. Soon, we will be back to summers with droughts, dead lawns, oppressive heat, parched fields, and lakes that are low.
For now, I think I will just enjoy the August green and ride the Harley in between showers and thunderstorms.
However, to all those that have been praying for rain … you can stop now.
[David Epps is the pastor of the Cathedral of Christ the King, Sharpsburg, GA (www.ctkcec.org). He is the bishop of the Mid-South Diocese which consists of Georgia and Tennessee (www.midsouthdiocese.org) and the Associate Endorser for the Department of the Armed Forces, U. S. Military Chaplains, ICCEC. He may contacted at [email protected].]
