March Twenty-third Rain and Other Delays

I can deal with this. My main hope is that it stays this and nothing worse. But, the threat is there.

I awoke this morning to a gentle rain. Letting the dogs outside I could tell that it had been raining for a while. It is still raining, but it is one of those slow, steady, good rains that soaks into the ground. I can hear the sound of it falling through the wreck of a storm door, that soft, rhythmic, pounding the ground that is so relaxing. Looking out the window, I can see the trees in the woods out back gently swaying. The sky is a soft, muted, grey. I’m glad I fed the not so stray cats early while the rain was merely a misty drizzle. What they hadn’t eaten I moved to under the steps hopefully out of the rain.

I’m not positive, but I believe this is supposed to be an all day event, with the risk of severe weather later in the afternoon early evening. Obviously there will be no yard work done today, but that’s fine. It will give my muscles a time to recoup and regroup. I am nowhere near done with clearing my yard of leaves and limbs.

Both of my dogs are inside, curled up close by content to sleep the day away. I will spend the day alternating between housework, reading and probably answering calls from my mother. Which is fine, mom needs someone to talk with making me glad to be here for her.

I did watch a video by one of the local meteorologist. In it he mentioned that the rain this morning was helping to slow and possibly lessen the severe weather potential. I wonder how often, should we stop and really think about it, how often events slowed us and ended up helping us? I recall the time I was heading out for work but was delayed by a few moments. When I left and was heading up one of the country roads toward where I worked, I came upon an accident. Help was already there as a county police officer lived nearby. I thought though, if I had left out on time, would I have been in the middle of that as it happened? Yesterday my son called and asked if I would bring him some lunch. I decided to go after his favorite rather than go for the easy. I had to wait a few moments as it was prepared. On the way to his job, for some reason traffic became very heavy. I was surprised as it was between the usual busy times. As I made my way around a curvy roadway I came upon where an accident had happened. Someone had spun around and ended in a ditch facing the wrong direction.

While we tend to get frustrated about delays, often those delays are ways of protection. For some of them, we may never in this life realize why we were delayed, but there was a reason. There is always a reason. Like the time my husband and I had planned a day trip to the mountains but were late in leaving. As we gathered ourselves to go, I received a call. My mother had fallen and needed help as she had broken her elbow. If we had not been delayed, she would have had no one there.  Realizing this has helped me to remain less frustrated when I find myself in that sort of situation. No, it isn’t easy but I’m getting better.

Today I won’t be able to get outside and work, but I can take care of inside things, I can take care of myself, and I can do some neglected reading. It is all in the way we look and perceive things. We can allow it to frustrate and cause stress, or we can decide to make use of the time in a constructive manner.

It doesn’t matter how long or short the delay may be, we can always make use of the time. We can use that time to study, to create, to grow. We can use the time, even if it is to simply offer a prayer of thanks for being looked after.

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