Nature's cryptic ways

I stayed up half the night Thursday listening to the rain pounding the metal roof above my head, wondering if the flooding was going to cover the crops in my low-lying fields.

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By sunup Friday, I was standing on a hill overlooking the Anderson River, which had become a small inland sea covering about 20 acres of cropland. In the distance, the water was edging into a golden field of corn.

An up-and-down growing season had taken another downturn and it hurt.

As of Friday morning, the water hadn't yet reached the ears of corn. But it likely will. As drizzle fell on my head, I reminded myself there was nothing I could do. I don't rely on farming for a living but neighbors up and down the the river separating Perry County from Spencer County do. They faced big losses.

  I lost a field of soybeans in the summer after similar rains covered another field. The ridge of corn, at a slightly higher elevation, was spared then. But I may not be so lucky this time.

After a soggy spring that delayed field work, my brothers didn't even plant some of the lowest-lying cropland. That turned out to be a smart move. What they would have planted would have been lost.

I don't handle frustration and losses well. That's why farming wouldn't have been a good choice as a primary vocation.

If farmers let frustrations and bad events like last week's flooding get to them, they'd have moved to town long ago and we'd all be going hungry. Still, damaging rains like last week's are demoralizing, especially since the destruction came so close to harvest time.

After taking my photos and driving between New Boston and Troy, the sun peeked through the clouds, creating a brief western rainbow. According to the Old Testament, the rainbow is a sign of God's promise never to again destroy the world with a flood. But the book doesn't promise an end to floods or difficulties.

Ruined fields don't compare to the death and destruction millions of people face from hurricanes, tsunamis and truly huge floods that wash away homes and claim lives.

My loss is tiny compared to those of others.

Nature offers us plenty of reminders that despite all our smarts, our technology and advances, we can't control the weather. That's hard to take and as much as we'd like to throw up our hands and walk away, there's always sun in the forecast, sooner or later.