Down in the Flood

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

March rains have now come and I constantly worry about whether my basement will fill with water again. Pouring in under the basement door this has happened twice in the recent past. The diluvian experience has prompted me to move anything of value to the upper floors.

I begrudge this month its indecisiveness. March is supposed to be a month of rain, and of snow. It is a transition month. Along with the tumult of April this is the month in which the seasons and the winds fight it out across this place. When the battle is done one will appreciate the green color that will return.

Merton today writes of the need of the monk to work in the fields as a tiller and a hewer. According to St. Benedict it is this honest labor that instructs the novice. We are all novices.

Dealing with the weather keeps us grounded in knowing that despite the artifices of humankind, simple elemental actions forces if you would that lie beyond our control. are direct the universe’s path. Wind, rain, heat, combustion these will direct the end all things. It is thus important not to fight with the weather but to understand it, accept it and acclimate to it.