Staying Hydrated

  Pondering the weather's desire to douse us with lots of rain over the past week and its continued wishes to keep doing so for at least another week, I am counting my blessings.  So far, July has not been overly hot (by my standards, at least).  The daily rains and extensive cloud cover have kept things at least down in the low 90s.  That, my friends, is nice and cool here in the Deep South.  Some folks do find the mugginess intolerable but locals are so accustomed to it, that we barely notice.

  The constant rains have had their downsides, however.  One being I forget to stay hydrated.  Drinking water seems to be a moot point when it is pouring from the sky and I am getting drenched with each hike.  Still, it is necessary and I literally have to remind myself.  Another irksome side effect of the nonstop showers is that my yard now closely resembles a rain forest of some sort.  There is no mowing, trimming or straightening in weather like this.  The rose bushes have a mind of their own and their long canes are drooping to the ground on either side of the arbor.  Where these touch the ground, they are sprouting roots.  The jasmine vines and wisteria vines are covering the house, trees and fences.  We managed to rip out one wisteria but the others are acting akin to the dreaded kudzu that has engulfed entire cities in the South!  Then, there are the gardenias and willows that are sprouting roots inches above the ground! 

  One willow is a rooted cutting from a friend. The young lady brought the cutting all the way from her folks' home some fifty miles to the north.  This sapling is still in the pot where I first stuck it.  The young tree rooted well but has not flourished...until now.  A Corkscrew Willow pretty much  loves to have its feet in the water.  As long as the rain keeps filling the pot to several inches above the dirt line, the willow is slap happy.  New roots are sprouting up the small trunk which will give it great stability if I add a bit more soil to the pot.  These willows are notorious about being a bit flimsy during rough weather so any extra roots could come in handy.  

  So, the rains will continue, the plants will grow by leaps and bounds and soon you may not be able to find the Little Bayou House!  I promise it is there...somewhere hidden beneath all of those leaves and vines!  Its a good thing I love rainy days!  This is my kind of weather.

If you are going to be a tree....be an oak!

  Live Oak Trees have massive and strong roots. To my feeble way of thinking, it seems that we all need a good set of sound roots to survive. Just like the oak tree that stands strong during a hurricane, if our roots are solid and run deep, we can withstand most anything that is thrown against us. 

  I was pondering this fact as I hiked down the hillside to the old oak tree that sits near the marsh edge. This tree has been here as long as I can remember.   During their childhood years, my kids climbed the limbs and pretended to conquer the world.  Like a kindly grandfather, the tree wrapped its limbs about them and cradled them from falling.  It protected them.  Now, I gain a lot of strength from this old tree.  Its roots tie me to the Bayou.  It limbs shelter me from storms.  It just plumb makes me happy.  In the midst of Hurricane Katrina, Mark and I watched as the storm surge sent huge waves over the top of the tree's limbs.  At the time, we thought sure that the old oak would topple.  It did not.  It held strong and survived where as dozens of other trees were uprooted.  The oak tree's roots ran deep.  They sprawled out in many directions and each grabbed hold to the soil with a massive strength.  Our tree withstood the beating and never faltered.  

  We need to be more like that old tree.  If we could send down good, solid roots as to have stability and yet throw our arms skyward to show compassion, our own lives would be far better.