It was bad but it was an opportunity. The drought this summer provided the chance to clean out, deepen ,and enlarge the pond. For many weeks the dry sand of the excavated lake bottom blew dust in the hot winds. It was a good setting to make desert movies. Some rain came, but never enough. Would the drought ever end? Would there ever be a larger body of water for all this hot, dry work done there? Only the deeper portion of the pond remained, stubborn and resistant to complete defeat. With hope through faith, I enlarged my pier - like Noah building an ark when on the dry and thirsty land with no rain in sight. The remaining water receded more and more, getting smaller and smaller. Large fish cranes stalked the shores, shrinking the chance of life for the remaining fish.Now, several months later, the rains have finally come. Within the past two weeks the pond has more than filled. Because of the opportunity the drought provided, my lake, is deeper, wider, longer and cleaner. When the water warms a bit, I will have an open water swimming opportunity of several hundred meters.
Sometimes it is hard to dig a pond out under a scorching sun, no rain in sight, with the dust swirling about. Sometimes I find my training in a drought like that: times when the dust clouds of circumstance, make it hard to see a reason, to risk the effort, to choose passion over lethargy and apathy. Sometimes it is just easier to watch and complain about the drought rather than leveraging the drought to widen and deepen ourselves; irrigate our souls and grow our faith in the desert. Down deep it is known. It will rain. The dust will settle and our pond will fill. Faith: we know and we know that we know. Back of every creation, supporting it like an arch, is faith. Enthusiasm is nothing: it comes and goes. But if one believes, then miracles occur.
Henry Miller
