On a Dreary and Rainy Day

I prayed for rain for weeks and weeks. Even though it’s the middle of May, grasses looked dormant and yellow, no matter how much fertilizer we applied.

Finally, one day after Mother’s Day, the grey and cloudy skies finally opened, and a deluge filled the dry swamps, the drainage ditches, and the huge pond nearby. It rained all night and it’s still raining hard. Flooding has overwhelmed ditches and capturing ponds.

It has been raining non-stop for hours today. The bull frogs in the pond were croaking happily last night in a choral unison of “rum, rum, rum.”

Everything looks green, colors look more intense, and the birds are chirping harmoniously from all directions in the forest. The bird nesting under our deck is hiding at the moment but the resident fox came by to snatch the bones I left for her last night. A blue heron landed briefly by the pond but flew away.

On days like today, nature comes alive, but humans disappear. The only vehicle that drove by was the garbage pickup truck.

I am pensive, waxing philosophically about our place on earth at this late stage in our lives. It seems that time flew by, our children now have grey hairs, homes of their own, some have children. We are happy and blessed with our children and grandchildren, but I still don’t understand why we are here, what is the purpose of life, of our lives? Why are we here?

I miss the years of my youth, I miss my people, some of my relatives, the few friends I have, and the place where I was born, a place where I no longer belong and barely recognize.

My closest and dearest relatives have passed away, my parents are gone, and all of my friends have moved on. There are very few people left who are barely in our lives.

I have two second cousins who live in the U.S. but none have made any contact so they might as well live on another planet. Everyone is on Facebook, so impersonal and sad, liking each other’s posts, or getting angry at total strangers, who insult them. The world is smaller but a sad place, thanks to technology.

I am staring out the window, watching the rain and the flooding in my back yard that is greening everything. There is a sort of peace in being inside and dry, watching the animals and birds playing in the rain and foraging for food. It’s a life they enjoy in these moments, not wondering about their existence.

It's a dreary and rainy day but nature is green and alive.