07:00    TUESDAY         2015-04-07

I step outside and I am instantly aware of the 60°F moist air. Strolling over last night’s rain-covered ground, I listen to the morning birds and hear their songs. Driving to work I pass a bare cornfield and am startled by the large, close silhouettes of two passing deer against the eastern dawn. There’s a feeling of darkness to the west. Stepping from my car I look east and smile at the salmon-colored sky striped with soft blue-grey clouds. I turn 180° and am faced with solid, silent clouds lumbering my direction. Far off in the distance, they wink at me with sporadic lightning winks. April showers bring May flowers; the clouds know this better than anyone.

There has been rain and there will be rain. That’s the way it has always been around here and that’s the way it has to be. Rain brings Life. Nothing can live without water. Scientists have found life forms in the most extreme environments – places that would instantly kill you or me. They’ve even found life forms that derive their energy not from the Sun like most creatures, but from extraordinary places like underwater thermal ocean vents! But as far as we know, all life forms have one need in common: liquid water.

I say, bring on the rain. It’s time to wake up, and there’ no better time than now.