Four days ago, after weeks of cloudless blue sky, I finally grew tired of the intense heat and asked the rain clouds to return to the land. It seems they heard me… Two days ago when I first saw the return of the clouds, I was so brilliantly happy, and relieved to see a possible end of the relentless bone dry days of summer. Then last night, the rain fell so hard on our ranch house, I couldn’t ignore the beautiful pounding raindrops splashing. I opened the sliding door and let the droplets try to invade the house and I chuckled. What a welcoming gift. So hopefully the monsoon weather stays around for the remainder of the summer.
It is the rain that brings strong memories of summer. It reminds me of the mysteries of life and why the unknown doesn’t always reveal it self to us. The unknown speaks loudly during an isolated active thunderstorm passing over the desert. As I’m traversing the Burr Trail, coming back from Lake Powell, The thunderclouds follow me all the way back to Boulder and Escalante. I camp out over by Bryce Canyon and listen to the rain and thunder claps in the middle of the night. The thunderclouds mix very well and supernaturally with the Colorado Plateau and its canyons. When you’re down in the confines of a deep canyon, a thunderclap echoes for miles and miles through boxy sandstone corridors, and it awakens the deepest appreciation for the quieter things in life.
The rain has returned to lovely Southern Utah, where the wind never sleeps, and the gnarly bushes and pines weave themselves into the endless sky. The clouds, they give shade, provide moisture, balance the heat, and make beautiful pictures for the landscape photographer. They give peace and tranquility in my corner of the world. The land I live in is timeless and cannot be squeezed into mere words. The clouds come as ancient visitors to the land. The rain, floods, and wind carve the timeless fabric of the land, into colorful badlands, vertical hoodoos, rocky gorges and canyons, and flowing muddy rivers like the Colorado.
So I’d thought to stop by the library and let you know my thankfulness…