We’ve all had those days when the bad weather seems to go on forever.
After months of pleasant temperatures and clear skies, the rainy, stormy weather of the Spring time. Rains are good. They make the plants grow and give the soil the much needed nutrients to regenerate new life.
Image by Lucas Papa from Pixabay
But when you live on a midwestern dirt road, Spring time rains become the bane of everyone’s existence. There is only so much gravel can do – especially if the gravel is made out of slick clay-like sandstone. (Not sure what the counties are thinking when they lay this aweful stuff down. Ever drive through mud that sucks gravel down to its core? And your car along with it?)
Welcome to the Midwest. Forget about Winter driving on ice. Try learning to drive on an ice rink made out of mud in the Spring and Summer.
I’m beginning to believe it is nature’s way to prepare us for the upcoming Winter months when the roads become slick and impassible from the ice. Even with sand and salt poured over them.
But the rain is the worst. Not because of the water, but because the mud created from the thirsty soil becomes a kind of sticky trap. Walking three feet from the nearest piece of solid ground instantly sucks at least one shoe into oblivion.
And if you’re luck enough to make it to another slice of non-muddy soil, you end up with your shoes weighing about ten pounds heavier than when you started out because of all the mud that firmly adheres to them.
Mud. The absolute worst.
But mud that sticks to everything and sucks your very soul into its depths is even worse.
Welcome to Spring.
Welcome to Spring in the middle of the country.
The place where all our food is grown.
Without the rain, we’d have no crops.
Without the crops, we’d have no food to buy in the grocery stores.
Without the farmers who brave that sticky mud and soggy air, we’d have nothing to eat.
So, in the end, God bless the rain.
(But maybe not the mud….unless you like making pottery.)