Walls

Walls. Put up as boundaries, fences; a way to keep things in, as a way to keep things out.  Built of wood, brick, stone, barbed wire, they all serve the same purpose.  And sometimes they are completely invisible, built of heartbreak and betrayal.

I am struggling with those invisible walls right now.  Unlike walls built of physical materials, which are easy to tear pull out and tear down, my invisible walls are hard to grasp and pull free. But there is a door within those walls, and it waits to be opened.

I have given away the key.

Scaffolding

Seamus Heaney

Masons, when they start upon a building,
Are careful to test out the scaffolding;

Make sure that planks won’t slip at busy points,
Secure all ladders, tighten bolted joints.

And yet all this comes down when the job’s done
Showing off walls of sure and solid stone.

So if, my dear, there sometimes seem to be
Old bridges breaking between you and me

Never fear. We may let the scaffolds fall
Confident that we have built our wall.

 

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Not a Drop to Drink

Former stream bed. The tree is usually right at the edge of the water and  water should be pouring over the rocks in the background.

There is an old phrase, “Water, water everywhere, and not a drop to drink.”  The water situation in my region is getting so serious that if we don’t get rain soon, there will be no more drops to drink.  Lake beds are showing and ponds have disappeared now and I fear that what is left of our streams will be gone by the end of this week.  The endless irrigation of the huge corn and soybean fields does not help our water table, however I can understand the need to nourish the fields.  There are all too many fields of corn that are burned and starved beyond hope, the plants barely 3 feet high and the leaves dead and brown.

This creek should be fast flowing and extend at least 4 feet into the grass on each side of the water.

I took a trip to Bonneyville Mill, a county park full of bogs, streams and small waterfalls, this past Friday.  It took my breath away to find that the waterfalls have dried up and 90% of the streams are gone.  The river that runs through the park, supplying the mill with water flow is full of algae and sluggish.

September 2011 and July 2012

And we are looking at yet another week with no rain on the horizon.  It has been almost 5 weeks since we have even seen a trace of precipitation.  I feel like Sarah, Plain and Tall, in Skylark.  I wonder if those rain dances really work….

Dry and empty. How much worse will it get?