I accept

I accept this 1 inch of rain in 15 minutes, as gracefully as I can, even though it is so far from how an inch of rain should be received. An inch of rain should ideally fall over a period. But my standards are old fashioned. I see that and I accept.

We actually called it an early day due to some cloud to cloud thunder that we were hearing off to the west. It was a ways off, and I stalled, but it was getting closer. Heaven forbid that a stray on the eastern edge should decide to hit the ground, and us just there in the big wide open. So we went in an hour and a half early, and not long after, the sky opened up and let us have it. I have to believe that the storm cell developed directly overhead. There was nothing so big on the radar 2 minutes before. It came down fast and heavy, as is more the norm the days.

I accept the rain for what it saves me: so much irrigation effort over the coming days otherwise, the gnawing anxiety that comes with these hot dry summers and a temporary relief from the humidity that had been building all day. I appreciate that it delivered more water in 15 minutes than I have probably ever pumped though the irrigation system, ever.

I accept this 1 inch of rain in 15 minutes. I couldn’t do without it. And I have no choice. For that reason also I accept that 1 inch or rain, or more, in 15 minutes is now the norm. I accept that the norms are changing. In 10 years, I will write about 2 inches in 15 minutes, in 15, 3. Ever changing, ever evolving…or devolving maybe I accept that these changes will make this endeavor all the more difficult, and maybe one day too much so. I accept that i’ll have to change, the farm will have to change, that the past is now not only the past, but that the future will be something only related in location, and that the present can’t be guaged in terms of what is normal.

I accept my own sense of powerlessness too, I think. Well, maybe not totally, then more and more with each passing day. But, what I’m having a little trouble with is that…as the norms change, and change out of even having norms, that we’ve all but stopped really talking about it. I guess I don’t blame us. The changes will likely roll in fast and heavy, like the rains do now. Those that can’t accept anything at all are running the show, and that is why we speak less, I reckon.. But in my estimation, if we are at a loss to change it, and we also don’t talk about it, then we won’t be able to make changes in other ways, accept, and keep going despite to all.

I accept the 1 inch of rain in 15 minutes, and I’ll accept the next.