Creation Care Mom

We knew that fire season would come early this year, due to the early spring warming and exceptionally dry weather.

Well, it’s here.

On Friday/Saturday, we had four new starts in about 24 hours. From where I live in Utah now, we have at least 4 active fires within 2 hours drive. The two closest are small currently sitting at under 500 acres, while the other two are large, the largest is over 20,000 acres and not contained.

We were lucky yesterday with cooler and less windy weather. The humidity was higher even though we didn’t get any rain. This helped the fire crews as the fires were less active. This morning I was surprised by a brief downpour just as we were getting up, but the ground is so dry that you couldn’t even tell it had happened when we walked outside. We are in desperate need of some meaningful precipitation. Most of what we have received this month barely reached the ground and did not nourish our parched earth. Not a good sign for the remaining summer months.

It reminds me of my first summer working in Yellowstone, 2012. I was working in housekeeping, cleaning hotel and cabin rooms. It had been hot and dry for a long time and so I preferred the indoor shifts. But one day, the skies opened up and a downpour ensued. It was such a welcome relief that I wanted to stand out on the deck and get soaked. It smelled so good and cleared so much dust.

We need that here and now. So as I was doing then, I’m doing now, praying for the rain we badly need and the renewal that comes with it.

For a cross-stitch of another beautiful and spontaneously rainy day in Yellowstone from that summer. You can check out my new cross-stitch pattern listed in my Etsy store. https://naturetoneedle.etsy.com/listing/4526282083/old-faithful-geyser-sunset-cross-stitch