A Sudden Shower
There’s a scurry in the garden,There’s a rustle through the plants;
There’s a scamper, scoot and scuttle Made by bustling bugs and ants
The mushroom’s an umbrella For a cabbage butterfly
And the pumpkin vine’s a shelter For a cricket hopping by.
Then a rush of racing raindrops patter, splatter in the grasses
While the tiny garden dwellers rest until the shower passes.
–Blanche Day Manos
The bustling bugs and ants in NW Arkansas may be waterlogged by this time. We’ve been having rain for the past two days. The pink and white azaleas are bowed down with it. The container garden is waiting expectantly, as if to ask if there’s a sun up there somewhere. But, as the song goes, into each life some rain must fall. The rain and cloudy weather which may seem dismal are, in fact, blessings for green growing things and for the gardener.
How many of us consider working among flowers or vegetables as therapy? I do. When I’m out among my flowers or herbs, I can pretty much forget that the world is awash in troubles. And my protagonist, Darcy Campbell feels the same way. Readers get a peek at Darcy’s dirt therapy in Grave Shift : “When my mother needed to work out her frustrations, she grabbed a mop and dust cloth and lit into the house. I grabbed gardening gloves and pruners and attacked the yard…The sun felt warm on my back as I snipped and stacked twigs and branches…I viciously cut an offending oak sprout from among the peonies…I whacked another sprout and realized too late it was part of the peony bush.”
Yesterday, I, who love the rain and also love words, thought a great deal about how alike the two are–rain and words. Both can be blessings, bringing out hidden beauty and encouraging growth. Contrariwise, they can be harmful and destructive. And, how like the fragile plants we are in our vulnerability. We have umbrellas for protection against a downpour but what do we have as a protection from harmful words?
I have seen mama hens spread their wings and call their babies to come shelter under their feathers when a sudden cloudburst catches them. Psalm 91 is my favorite passage of Scripture. Verse 4: “He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust.”
So, the Lord is my defense against hurtful words. He has promised to protect me just as the hen shelters her chicks. I’m grateful for the sunshine and also for the rain. God sends them to help us grow.
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