Snooze and Lose

     It is raining cats and dogs. A common occurrence this summer. Almost every day, there is a downpour. The heavens open, a heavy curtain of rain cascades, and Lightfall is a waterfall.

     I don’t entirely mind. While not my ideal weather, at least it is better than last summer’s drought. Weeks and weeks went by with no rain. My garden plantings drooped and died, the pond turned into a mud puddle, wildlife wandered about in a lethargic daze, and trees prematurely shed their leaves, as if trying to trick autumn into coming early.

     I worried about forest fires, and too close for comfort, there were forest fires. A danger I never thought would exist to any serious degree in the Allegheny Mountains. But I was wrong.

     Two things about this summer’s weather that are the same as last year’s are the high temperatures and humidity. In fact, steamy air has become a regular summer phenomenon.  Every year now, it rears its ugly head, and the length and strength of its presence grows ever longer and stronger. 

     An atmosphere more of swamps than of mountains is another extremist newcomer to the Alleghenies. Up until fifteen or so years ago, any sultry heat wave that swept through this area usually broke in about a week, and even then, at night, it would almost always cool down and crisp up enough to open windows, curl up under a blanket, and sleep in utter contentment. I never thought I would need air conditioning. These days, I do not think I could live without it.

     I despise this monstrous heat and humidity that has become a normal abnormality of summer in the Alleghenies. But at least this year the hollow is getting the rain I missed and hoped for last year. Shame on me if I ever again take for granted the wonderful sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste of rain.

     Although rain in the Alleghenies is increasingly aberrant too. More and more, it comes in torrents fast and furious. While the slow soakers, known as farmer’s rain, are becoming few and far between.

     Steady and gentle, a farmer’s rain can be fully absorbed by the soil, ensuring plants have access to moisture for an extended period. Whereas the deluges currently experienced happen with such intensity, the soil cannot absorb the rain quickly enough, and the water ends up flowing over the ground as runoff. The runoff then erodes and carries away the topsoil. Lost with the topsoil are most of the nutrients needed to grow everything from apples to zucchinis. To make matters worse, the runoff, as it spills across various surfaces, can and often does pick up pollutants. When the runoff eventually empties into a stream, lake, or some other waterbody, the pollutants reduce the quality of the water in that body. 

     Also because of inundating rains and their ensuing runoffs, the ground is not fully hydrated. Likewise, the underground aquifers and the above-ground reservoirs are not adequately replenished. Despite an overabundance of rainfall, the end result is a dearth of water for all living organisms, including plants and humans.

     Contrastingly, the raging rains and wasteful runoffs overfill creeks and rivers. Floods occur, destroying land and life. Though it is true the Allegheny region has long been susceptible to flooding, flash floods, with water levels rising so rapidly people do not have time to prepare or flee, are happening more frequently and with increasing ferocity.

     Fortunately, there are ways to keep these changes from becoming so overpowering anything we humans do to try to lessen them is useless. Furthermore, though it will take limitless optimism, tenacity, and thinking outside the box, along with an enormous amount of hard work and a time frame much longer than our own lifetimes, it is plausible we can get back the Mother Nature I and so many others now sharing Earth remember. With her, the world will be reborn, new and improved for future generations.

     In Ayana Elizabeth Johnson’s book, What If We Get It Right?, a Smithsonian Best Book of the Year, a good number of environmental solutions that are immediately available are presented and discussed with twenty experts. Included in the prestigious twenty are scientists, activists, journalists, policy makers, farmers, financiers, entrepreneurs, architects, and artists. Moreover, Dr. Johnson stresses, not only the above authorities, but every one of us as individuals and community members has a special and irreplaceable skill to offer in the creation of an environment made for wonderful living. She calls such abilities our “superpowers.”

     I agree with Dr. Johnson. Everyone has a superpower. It just needs to be recognized, valued, and trusted by its owner. I also agree with Dr. Johnson that we should each polish up our superpower and put it to work post haste.

     Still, I understand either any hesitancy for or downright dismissal of this proposal. Because addressing Earth’s environmental challenges requires an ambitious, multi-pronged approach. Not only do large-scale political and economic systemic changes need to be made, so do individual lifestyle changes need to be made, even to the point of sacrifice.  And who likes sacrifice? I certainly don’t. As is human, I want an easy life full of nothing but lighthearted happiness, and sacrifice is hard, weighty, and solemn.

     Yet, I am reminded of this. When I was a little girl, anytime I was faced with something difficult, I would take to my bed and sleep. In this way, I escaped the troublesome burdens of reality and lost myself in blissful oblivion. But upon growing up I realized, as I was losing myself in sleep, so also was I losing out on the most wondrous thing the waking world has to offer a person. I came to understand that unawareness may be good for closing the door on adversity, but awakeness is the key to actively engaging in life, and actively engaging in life is never always easy and happy. It is an adventure full of problems that, when confronted, result in a depth of existence that includes finding one’s meaning and purpose, and while not painless, such whole living transcends happiness to become a profound joy that endures through all challenges.

     Long story short, I awoke.