Hurricane season

After suffering two massive floods within two months, one in mid April and the second just this last week, Southeast Texas woke up this morning, rolled over and looked at the calendar and realized it was June 1. The first day of hurricane season. Whoop te do!

But first we have to contend with more everyday rainstorms that are on the way and may be settling over us for the next five days or so. More flooding is forecast. With all this going on, how can we get worked up about hurricane season?

Still, we need to be paying attention because this might prove to be an interesting and active season.

The last big storm to hit us was Hurricane Ike in 2008. It was hugely destructive. Looking around the neighborhoods after the passage of that storm, it was hard to believe that things could ever be put right again, but eight years later, it is hard to distinguish signs that it happened. Will this be the year that our hiatus between storms ends?

We were protected last year by a very strong El Niño, but El Niño is now rapidly weakening and meteorologists say we may be heading straight into a La Niña pattern which will be much more favorable for the formation of Atlantic hurricanes.

Perhaps it is a harbinger of an active season that there has already been one hurricane this year. Hurricane Alex hit the Azores in January, an almost unprecedented month for Atlantic hurricanes. A second storm named Bonnie never reached hurricane status but the tropical storm hit over the Memorial Day weekend bringing rip currents and rain along the East Coast.

We've been lucky these last few years, but at some point our luck will run out and this may be that year, so if you live along the East or Gulf Coast, it is important to be prepared, not complacent. Remember our mantra: Hide from the wind, run from the water. The water will kill you.

Poetry Sunday: Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver

How about we share another Mary Oliver poem? After all, you can never have too many of those. In this one, the poet seems to acknowledge that it is often hard to simply live in and enjoy the moment, perhaps because we are afraid it can't last. She urges us to give in to that moment and fully experience the joy. Although "much can never be redeemed, still, life has some possibility left." Don't Hesitate by Mary Oliver If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it. There are plenty of lives and whole towns destroyed or about to be. We are not wise, and not very often kind. And much can never be redeemed. Still, life has some possibility left. Perhaps this is its way of fighting back, that sometimes something happens better than all the riches or power in the world. It could be anything, but very likely you notice it in the instant when love begins. Anyway, that’s often the case. Anyway, whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is no...

Poetry Sunday: Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney

My mother was a farm wife and a prodigious canner. She canned fruit and vegetables from the garden, even occasionally meat. But the best thing that she canned, in my opinion, was blackberry jam. Even as I type those words my mouth waters! Of course, before she could make that jam, somebody had to pick the blackberries. And that somebody was quite often named Dorothy. I think Seamus Heaney might have spent some time among the briars plucking those delicious black fruits as well, so he would have known that "Once off the bush the fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour." They don't keep; you have to get that jam made in a hurry! Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney Late August, given heavy rain and sun For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot Among others, red, green, hard as a knot. You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust ...

Poetry Sunday: Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman

You probably remember poet Amanda Gorman from her appearance at the inauguration of President Biden. She read her poem "The Hill We Climb" on that occasion. After the senseless slaughter in Uvalde this week, she was inspired to write another poem which was published in The New York Times. It seemed perfect for the occasion and so I stole it in order to feature it here, just in case you didn't get a chance to read it in the Times . Hymn for the Hurting by Amanda Gorman Everything hurts, Our hearts shadowed and strange, Minds made muddied and mute. We carry tragedy, terrifying and true. And yet none of it is new; We knew it as home, As horror, As heritage. Even our children Cannot be children, Cannot be. Everything hurts. It’s a hard time to be alive, And even harder to stay that way. We’re burdened to live out these days, While at the same time, blessed to outlive them. This alarm is how we know We must be altered — That we must differ or die, That we must triumph or try. ...

The Nature of Things

Search This Blog