It feels nice when the air of the day you greet is sweet and cool as it is this morning. It gives you hope that softer weather is on the way. Meanwhile, I’m still marveling at the pictures coming out of North Carolina and Tennessee following hurricane Helene. Pictures of rain terraforming mountains. A real live lesson in geology. Erosion on a grand scale. Terrifying to be sure, and sad for those in the way as the water flowed and the earth moved, but a good reminder that nature has powers we might find hard to comprehend.

First of all, there’s time. It’s common to hear people say, they’ve never seen flooding like this in their lifetime, but you can bet it has happened before because the mountains in question started forming about 1.2 billion years ago, and flooding like this is how the river valleys people now call home were formed. And it will happen again, although, not perhaps in any of our lifetimes. And it can happen to anyone living beside or along a river, because it’s a drainage and floods are how drainage works.

Finally, there’s the power of the storms. Air moves, moisture gathers, winds blow, rains fall. Almost magic except we have science, and we know how it happens. And the science tells us storms are going to get more powerful because there’s more heat in the air, heat the power giver. But people have a hard time understanding science and would rather believe in magic because it’s easier and takes less work. Although, even without people in the mix, nature would still go it’s merry way and there’s no telling what it would do without people putting their hand on the scale.