The rain that most of the midwest, agricultural states have received this year is something awful. In my 43 years of living in WVa, then Iowa and now recently, Ohio – I have not experienced in memory this heightened concern. I’m not sure how many ways it’s affecting so many unknown factors with farmers who still can’t plant any seeds because it hasn’t been dry enough. And it’s May 22nd. And it just got cloudy again and we’re supposed to get more.
It kind of feels eerie when year after year, no matter which state we lived in, May meant the sparks of green on our daily commutes and drives. It was signs of the best time of year. Bright green fields with gold corn, hot sunshine, and bronze skin.
But it hasn’t happened. It’s not there, yet it’s warm out. The shorts are dug out of the tub and back on the shelf. The kids are out of school. It’s summer now, brah.
Our farmlands are quickly transforming into prairies with more geese floating than seed coating. Yet, in the absence of necessary beauty – these gorgeous clumps of yellow flowers magically grew within random patches of untillable, barren fields.
Sure, I want everything to dry out, sunshine (come and stay- please!), get that seed in by the crop insurance deadline and harvest our gold before the frost sets in.
But it’s out of my hands. Anyone’s hands, really. Weather is what it is and this does happen every decade or so somewhere. Here’s a list of them.
So in the meantime, there’s a different kind of gold sprouting up in our fields and there are some full fields of them – simply beautiful. Maybe’s its God’s way of giving us rare beauty in the midst of despair, anxiety and the inability to say the word rain in certain (most) company.
It also helps that the two-lane highway into the office is under construction forcing you to navigate country backroads and compare notes with co-workers because there are so many older back roads that we decide which is fastest. They all have no painted lines, are somewhat curvy and are peppered with properties of every size and walk of life and gorgeous rainbows of wildflowers making these negatives a positive of perfect podcast listening zones.
I’m going to say it.
Rain. Rain. Go Away. Come Back Another Day. God, Thank YOU for the beautiful landscape in a time of stress for my friends and neighbors. Can you raise the sale price of beans? J/K
Thanks for reading!
Heather
