During haying season the weather becomes all important, as we work to get all our grass baled without being rained on, which reduces the quality of the hay as feed for our animals. It takes about 3 days to take a field from standing grass to cured dried day. The grass must be cut, left to dry in the sun for a couple of days, and then baled. At this time of year I spend my mornings watching the weather channel, trying to pick the correct time periods between forecasted rains. What stuck me as unusual, and even a little sad, was the way the weather channel now uses fear to try to get us to keep watching. All their descriptions are aimed at trying to get us to be worried or concerned about what could possibly happen, and nothing is mentioned about the beauty of the weather, the God inspired change in energy that is the only constant in our experience of the weather. Upon further reflection though I realized that they are using fear of the weather, not because it is universal or normal, not because we want to embrace fear, but because it is unusual, and therefore gets our attention. The beauty of the weather, the beauty of nature, this constant kaleidoscope of the changes in God’s environment, are so normal and taken for granted that we fail to appreciate it, we fail to give our attention to its beauty and energy. What a great world we live in, when we take the times to appreciate, to be thankful.
