The Forecast

I remember being at a county fair as a small child and getting a snow cone at a concession stand that backed up to a rodeo arena.  While I was waiting, I peeked around the corner and saw lots of activity in the arena, none of which stands out.  However, the music that was playing has been etched firmly in my memory.  Waylon Jennings telling us that we should get back "to the basics of life" in a place I'd never heard of called Luckenbach, Texas.  I liked the way he growled out the song and the lyrics evoked an overall cowboy feeling.  Cowboy as I understood it at that time.

Fast forward about two and half decades.  Ed tells me he got us tickets to go to a rodeo in Wichita Falls, Texas.  It's a real ranch rodeo he explains and the men in it actually work with cattle and ride horses for a living.  They weren't just playing dress up.   How odd, I thought.  Real live cowboys.  I looked at him like he had said pirates....real live pirates.  Arghhh.  Those are things you read about in books and see recreated in movies, but do you mean to tell me there are still real cowboys?  Ed was probably in disbelief that I was in disbelief.

Before the events of the rodeo began, a group of riders on horseback came out with the Texas state flag and the flag of the United States of America. The national anthem was sung and I looked around at the people that were there.  They looked like the men at the sale barn did.  Good people who loved their country, led a respectful way of life taking care of what had been entrusted to them, and were God fearing.  They announced it was time to offer up a prayer.  Deeply bowed heads, hats removed and placed over chest, eyes closed or staring at the ground.   I noticed I was the only one wearing flip flops...really cute flip flops.  It was a pretty standard prayer until they got to the end and made what I thought was an odd request.  They prayed for rain.  Rain.  That wet stuff that fell out of the sky every other day where I lived whether you wanted it to or not.  For me it meant I had to wash my car, mow my grass more often, and I couldn't go outside.  I couldn't believe what I was hearing.  When I heard the Amen, I turned to ask Ed why would people pray for rain.  He patiently explained that this part of the country was in a bad drought.  People, crops, and animals were all hurting and rain was badly needed.  If it didn't rain there would be no crops to sell and no food for the animals to eat.  They would die or have to be sold off.  Too many cattle sold at one time floods the market and they sell cheaply, which leaves the ranchers broke and possibly unable to try again next year.  Too many cows sold at once creates a shortage later and the cost goes through the roof at the store.

Rain meant life.  Life for the crops, life for the animals, and a continued way of life for the people who tried to keep this delicate circle going.  I would never look at the weather the same way.  I had no idea what was hanging in the balance.  That everything that you do and own hinges on rain and the weather.  Prior to this point in my life I had never thought about where my food came from.  I went to the store, I bought it, I took it home, and I ate it.  Period.  How it got there had not been part of my thought process.  I had been so completely ignorant and now it is part of my daily reality. 

Pausing today and everyday with hands out stretched, head reverently bowed and eyes closed.  Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for this honest way of life where we do not take for granted Your many blessings.  The sunrise, the wheat crop, the animals You've entrusted to our care, our families, and Your son, sweet infant baby Jesus.  Please send us rain Father, so that this circle will not be broken.  Amen.