la lluvia

 "The nature of rain is the same, but it makes thorns grow in the marshes and flowers in the gardens." 

Anthony de Mello

Mount Sinai during the verano (summer) dry season:

 Mount Sinai during el invierno (winter) rainy season:

"La lluvia nos trae problemas"

 (the rain brings us problems), a neighbor tells me as we listen to the rain fall on the tin roof of her cane home. Her perspective is shaped by the recent flooding she has experienced. The rain has never caused me anxiety. In fact, I have always loved the sound of rain, the scent of the asphalt after it rains, and the bright colors of the strawberry fields in Santa Maria, California during the rainiy season. The local community has built homes on fertile land for agriculture that flourishes with lakes, rivers and trees during the rainy season. The problem is not the rain itself, but the homes that are not built to resist it. My optimism is shaped by my positive experience of rain. "La luvia nos trae problemas," she says to me, "pero parace otro Sinai ahora que ha llovido, mas lindo," I reply. (but now that it has rained Sinai looks lik a different place, a more beautiful place). When it rains in Sinai, it pours, literally and metaphorically. It is teaching me and shaping me. Meanwhile, I remind neighbors of the beautiful flowers it has broughts and the green landscape it has colored.

and a random cow spotting: