Went to the hills just south of town to watch the sun go down yesterday. There were big clouds all around. I thought they might make for a nice show. They did. The wind meanwhile was making a soft whistling sound as it moved along, singing a here-comes-a cold-front song. I thought we might even get rain. None came. We did get cold. Or cool. It’s nice outside this morning. Jacket weather.

Last night there was a heck of a lightning show off to the east, which is where the rain apparently fell. It was so far away that no sound of thunder came to my straining ears. I guess someone got wet. We didn’t. Too bad. We still need rain. At least we don’t live in the days when a priesthood would be sacrificing one of the neighbors to get it to fall. Now days we just gripe and make do because we know all about droughts and El Ninos and La Ninas. And mostly the rain comes again. Of course, one day the earth will remind us it’s been here a billion years and it will do what it wants with the weather, and the rain will fall somewhere else.

Of course, I’ll be gone by then. I guess. It could happen in my lifetime. Maybe it’s happening right now. There’s the problem with being human though. My time scale and the earth’s time scale are on completely different cycles. And what I think takes a long time is nothing to the earth and the stars above. And most people take little notice of the change, they just think it’s all part of the game without having any idea how big the game really is or how long it’s been going on. I have a fair idea, however, and I think it’s amazing that this little brain of mine sprang into existence with the ability to imagine all that and see beauty in the clouds above and yet is still just a blip in the history of earth.

John W. Wilson is the author of The Long Goodbye: A Caregiver's Tale