Where's Your Umbrella?

Oh, well... we are in the middle of facing a smaller degree of the same situation in our region. It is not a full famine yet but we have had very little rains in the last three years. Most farmers have already spent their yearly profit on digging new bore wells and/or deepening existing ones. Even this bold effort has failed some farmers as their new bore wells have dried up as well. We decided to wait it out. All our crops dried by June and we did not plant anything new after that. We lost many trees.

We did some rain water harvesting arrangements as our version of the umbrella. A few storm rains happened in September and the remaining trees have perked up. We have good undergrowth now. But the rains were not enough to recharge the ground water, so we cannot plant anything new yet. The next monsoon is not until next July (our second monsoon in November is already a failure). We have not prayed though. Our scientific mind "knows" that the weather is not personal and an appeal to a God behind the non-existing clouds seems absurd. This is clearly the (dried) fruits of our collective bad karma. Farmers seem to be the most affected. But we see that the non-farmers too are affected in so many different ways. All around, great opportunity to cultivate equanimity, if not fruits and grains :). Perhaps the umbrella is not so much a sign of hope as it is a sign of equanimity: In the face of a full blown famine, we try to remain normal as if the miraculously life-giving rains are just around the corner. Because, what is life other than a series of seasonal miracles (like rains from the heavens) that make "normal" life possible?

Ragu, It’s interesting how I read another daily good story before this one about the circles of time, then I read this story and noticed that your comment is from November 2017. Your past and my present are intersecting at this moment :). Did this monsoon bring rains for you?