Once again, I am up early for this time zone in Arkansas, writing in the CCC room, sipping coffee shared with me by the front desk park ranger who has been here all night, keeping watch while the rest of us slept. I am happy to have slept through the night because at 3 a.m. I banished the thought that said, "Screw it. Might as well get up and get the day started." I managed to get back to sleep and slept until just before 5, which is always a rare event for me.
I am up and thinking of yesterday's dramatic weather as I hear the rumbles of thunder:
Yesterday morning's view from the patio overlook was the most clear that the skies were going to be for the rest of the day:
I don't have a picture of today's view; it's early and most of the exterior doors are locked. I'm set up here at this table, with thunder rumbling, and I don't feel like tromping around outside. Yesterday when I first heard thunder rumbling, we were an hour away from the rains and storms that lasted all day.
The afternoon wedding had already been moved so that we could be near a shelter, and all day, we kept an eye both to the skies and social media, in case plans changed. We had been told the shelter was 13 miles up a road that was described as both muddy and gravel with limited parking when we got there. I had already decided to wear my running shoes, and frankly, I wish I had a pair of sturdy hiking boots because I would have worn those too. I am envisioning my elder years as shod in boots of various sorts. But I digress.
I wore a pair of shorts on under my skirt. If the vehicle got stuck in the mud, I could take off my skirt and not ruin it. I'm not sure what I thought I would do after that, but it made me feel better to be prepared that way. In my sneakers with shorts on under my skirt, it also made me feel like my 5th grade self. That grade, we all wore shorts under our dresses and skirts because the boys delighted in trying to expose our nether regions. Even once they got tired of the game, it felt good to have that protection. But I digress.
We made our way up the road in the most rugged vehicle we had, and it wasn't as bad as we had been told. Although cloudy, the weather was perfect. That weather did not hold.
Just before the ceremony, I looked up the severe weather alert, and then I looked up which county we were in. The weather alert told us to take shelter immediately. I don't think the weather folks had our shelter in mind.
The view was dramatic, as I watched various weather systems moving across the land below. And when the ceremony started, the clouds descended and mist moved through the shelter. The guests were able to avoid most of the rain, but I can't say the same for the wedding party.
Happily, we avoided the kind of headline I envisioned when I saw the weather alert that warned of dangerous lightning and 60 mph winds. We took post ceremony pictures in the rain, and then we moved down the mountain to an enclosed picnic shelter for the reception.
We talked about the old folk wisdom that a bride who has rain on her wedding day will have a blessed marriage. If that's true, the bride in our family is blessed beyond measure.
As I sat at a picnic table watching adults and children dance, I thought about how we are all blessed beyond measure, with food in our stomachs and weather the only threat from above. We have come through many storms already, and I know that more will come. But it's good to remember that we have more people rooting for us than we may know, the ones who are there in person, the ones who pray from far places.
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