The Tyranny of the Seasons

The occasion of a storm, especially if it brings a power outage, has always been an opportunity for reflection, at least to me.

On Thursday we had a significant weather event. A bow-shaped line of severe storms plowed left-to-right across our part of the Heartland bringing much needed rain for thirsty crops and gardens. As it arrived, tall trees in the woods bent to their upper trunks under a roaring wind and rain pelted the hard ground. Down in protected valleys and up on the more level ground, branches snapped and roots came up from the ground as big tops fell, leaving widespread power outages. As in the old song from years back, the lightning danced about. The top of a big beech fell toward a smaller one which snapped and came down on our little branch power line. Everybody down our way went dark and stayed that way all night.