It’s all about perspective

Having grown up in Ohio and living most of my life east of the Mississippi, I had never truly experienced drought until we began our transition moving from the east coast to the west coast last October. For many months Southern California has been experiencing extreme drought conditions. Here in the mountains above LA I hadn’t seen a drop of precipitation — not even fog or dew — since mid October. To say we were bone dry was an understatement. I’m sure most people have heard or read about the terrible fires here in Southern California. Fortunately, the closest fire was about ninety miles away from where our cabin is located but the fire hazard in this area was certainly extreme. 

In some ways, we’ve been very fortunate to have weeks on end of lovely weather. It has been consistently in the 60’s during the day with abundant sunshine and lows in the upper 30’s or low 40’s at night, which makes for great sleeping weather. The east coast certainly has had more than it’s fair share of snow and even a monster storm so far this winter. But that old saying, “all sunshine makes a desert” was certainly hitting home with me. I have honestly missed a rainy day or two! 

Thankfully, today we finally got a break. It rained. And rained. With another day of rain expected. Oh, how this dry, parched land has needed this! 

I think even the wild critters are happy to see the rain. I can’t even imagine where they’ve been able to find water to drink after so many months of drought!

So tonight, as I go to sleep, I’ll lay in bed and listen to the rain on our roof and windows and offer a prayer of thanks for the rain.