Blog 2141 – 08.26.2021

The Sound Of Thunder

The sound of thunder for some is unnerving, a prelude to a terrible storm, but to one who loves rain, as much as I do, thunder is a prelude to the sweet sound of precious drops from heaven. You cannot have life, at least life as we know it, without rain. I, for one, do not buy the wrongful characterization of thunderstorms and rain as evil, that is just a misunderstanding. Grant you, storms and flooding rains do reek havoc from time to time, destroying, crops, property and even taking lives but there would be, as I already said, no life without water that is redistributed in the form of rain.

As I write this we are getting some much needed rain in my corner of northeastern Nebraska. This is corn country and were it not for irrigation the corn crops would have already failed here. This rain is a welcome event and the thunder and lightning show I am sure warms the hearts of farmers as much as it does mine.

I had a long time friend that I had not heard from in several years comment on yesterday’s blog, thanking me for some, for her, quite timely encouraging words. I replied that even the Encouraging Word guy enjoys hearing some encouraging words. It has long been said that three of the most beloved words in the English language are heaven, home, and mother. Those are definitely encouraging to many, if not all of us, but there are other encouraging words and rain is up there on my list.

I originally chose “the encouraging word” for the name my blog name and internet domain almost five and a half years ago because of a favorite line from an ole cowboy song “Home On The Range” which goes:

“Where seldom is heard a discouraging word and the skies are not cloudy all day.”

I rephrased it in a slightly more positive way:

“Where often is heard an encouraging word and they skies are not cloudy all day.”

If you work outside as I do, clouds are a welcome thing and getting a “rain day” off occasionally is not a bad thing either. It is a big problem this forever trying to label everything good or bad. I even think our obsession to name everything is often the root of many of our problems which are not even real till we name them. I have heard that farmers warn their children against naming the stock and thereby making pets of them because they are going to have their hearts broken at sell or slaughter time.

In a favorite movie of mine, Breakfast At Tiffany’s with the lovely Audrey Hepburn, the main character, Holly Golightly, is a young woman on the run, a transient in her own life, one who wisely refers to her most stable companion as “cat.”

In the final scene of the movie she is reunited with “cat” in a rain storm in a New York City alley and discovers there is another person now in her life even more important and permanent than cat. Another important thing about rain, besides it’s life giving and sustaining properties is that it washes away the dust and the film from everything including our eyes so that we can see more clearly what is most important in our lives. It is not houses, lands, and crops but people, yes and even precious pets, loyal and true, named or not.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1teeKzzvuxt4oaJSZewjKgka_uEJBGQty/view?usp=drivesdk

Moon River