Water is life-sustaining

Once again I had a pond in my backyard. The rain had come down faster than the lawn could absorb it. It was gone by morning.

It had been raining for awhile before the river started rising and the low spots in the yard began to fill with water. We watched the river. Any time we can see the river from the house it makes us nervous. We remember too well when the water came into the house during the first flood a few years ago.

All of downtown was closed to business. Barricades were set up at either end of the main road. Pictures of flooded streets began to show up on Facebook. Our apprehension grew. I moved my shoes to higher ground. The books on the bottom of the bookcase were relocated upstairs, just in case. We kept a close eye out for water to be where it shouldn’t.

We got lucky. It was only the backyard that was under water. The front yard had one or two small puddles, not enough to worry about. When we went to bed that night, the river was almost touching the bottoms of the two bridges I can see from home. We didn’t know if we were going to be surrounded by water in the morning but there was nothing we could do about it.

The next morning we found that the river had not come to visit. The weather forecasters are calling for more rain every day for the next week. We are grateful that the ground is thawed so that the water can eventually find its way underground.

We can’t control the weather. We can’t control when or where rain will fall or how much will come down. We can attempt to guide it to the rivers and streams and away from our homes. We can control how much leeway we allow the waterways. When we read about wildfires in other states we wonder why we can’t divert the rain from one place to another. We know better than to build our homes close to places that are susceptible to flooding. 

Still, there is something compelling about water. Sitting on the edge of a creek with my toes in the water has been known to take all my woes away.

Watching the water flow under a bridge is calming. If one stares long enough the tiny fish and other inhabitants come into focus.

We need water to survive. Our bodies are approximately 50 to 60 percent water. For comparison a watermelon is 92 percent water. Every living thing needs water in one form ar another. The presence of water is an indication that there might be life on other planets.

When I was little my mom used to say that rain was the angels crying. I have no idea what they were crying about. Sometimes rain was God watering his flowers when the weeping angels were unavailable. Thunder was caused by the angels bowling. They are myths. Probably.

We aren’t the only ones with poor drainage and there are others around town that also had their properties covered in part with rain. At least one city park was suitable for wading except that it was too cold for that.

A good, hard rain scrubs the air clean as it falls. A gentle rain feeds the earth slowly so it can process the water it needs.

Yes, we had a pond in the backyard for awhile. It is gone now. I have faith that it will be back the next time the rain pours down.