From fire to flood in two months is severe and a bit wearing on the nerves. You know how short your nerves are getting when you see the sun for a brief glimpse and you all gather round to witness the event.
I think I am pretty tough when it comes to weather. I have lived in Northern Alberta for over 30 years now and I have "weathered" -40 to +30. But I have to say this year has been exceptionally ROUGH and I say ENOUGH is ENOUGH. I get why cultures throughout the ages have worshipped all sorts of deities and had numerous belief systems. It was a way of bringing back some control to an uncontrollable situation. Mother Nature can be a real BITCH and if you thought that hopping on one foot while chanting backwards with your arms raised to the sky would appease her in some way, I say GO FOR IT! Really, I completely understand. For the past week I have been contemplating sacrificing a pair of virgins to a "puddle". I wasn't even going to be picky about the "virgin" part - just any willing pair that would "take one for the team". Lately Pat has been going to sleep with one eye open because he was afraid I just might decide that he would have to be the one.
And it isn't the first time I have had thoughts like this. We had a loooong winter and I was having the same thoughts about sacrificing a pair of virgins to a snowdrift. When we finally got Spring-like weather it was in early May and within 2 weeks we had a devastating fire that destroyed a huge portion of our town and the surrounding communities. And just when we are back from evacuation and people are trying to sort through the rubble so they can begin to rebuild, we get rain, rain, rain, rain......and I mean RAIN. It's hard to keep an optimistic outlook.
So when the sun finally comes out you want to soak it all up, get as much Vitamin D as you can to fortify yourself for whatever comes next. You can't help but smile and dance for joy. The sun is like some long-lost friend that you just ran into, a long ago lover that you never got over, a superstar that came out to mingle -- you get the idea, it's a BIG DEAL. A smile won't rebuild our town but it sure will help to lighten the emotional load that so many people are carrying around. The sunshine makes that possible - it brings rays of hope that we so desperately need.
I don't know if someone "took one for the team" or if someone came up with a "sun-dance" that actually worked. What I do know is that I am grateful for the sunshine. Grateful for a reprieve. Grateful to Mother Nature who is smiling on us today. I will try to "store" this in my very pores and remember this feeling so I can keep that smile on my face. I know that this year more than ever I have to keep a sunny disposition - I have to be there for the team as we begin to rebuild, not in a way that discounts the hard reality of their situations, but in a way that helps them see the sunnier days to come. Hope is sometimes all we have to hold onto and I want those rays of hope to shine as bright as they can in the months to come.
Here's to SUNNIER days for all of us.
