Two long months with hardly any rain. That is the dire situation we have been facing this season. Our CSA provides shares to 85 families in the Washington, DC area.  Long ago this past April, we missed a month’s worth of rain, kicking off a season of high and dry windy weather. This has been tough on everything and everyone around.  During this season’s severe extended drought we’ve been dealing with a 2-pronged “war”. On one hand, we must keep every new seedling and translant happy and moist, on the other, we must keep the deer at bay.

The deer come out around mid-August every year as their food runs out in the forest. This season, they were here in July. Entire plantings of green beans, sweet potatoes and edemame, were gone. Badly eaten were the new and still tender tomato and cucumber plants.

Earlier in the season we cought 6 groundhogs over the course of a month and a half, and safely transported them to a wooded area a few miles away. Now we have an early deer problem, and a drought like we’ve never seen before.

Weeks go by with only an inch or two of rain. Throughout the month of July we got less than 2 inches of rain, watching thunderstorms and big gray couds float over us and delight neighboring towns with their moisture.

This week I am really starting to panic. With no rain in sight, and chances of thunderstorms amounting to nothing at all for weeks on end, having done rain dances, bonfires, and talking angrily to anyone who would listen, my husband Pablo and I decided to just bless.

I’ve prayed before. I’ve asked, begged, demanded, and promised. This afternoon, after harvesting in 105 degree heat and longing for the sour mood to stop, we sat down on a bench next to our harvest, held hands and recited in simple Hebrew, blessing the One who opens up the clouds and lets the rain fall.

This afternoon, while I visualized myself totally drenched like so many times before, we hand-watered many of our beds. We painstakingly removed each and every white fabric cover (deer protection), watered, and put it back. All the while the sky rumbled and dark almost-brown clouds floated by, like in the weeks past.  I thought if I imagined myself soaked in the rain it would attract the clouds to stay and open.

At dusk, a tiny little shower dragged by, seemingly teasing us for watering for almost all of the afternoon. Then, as the sun completely dissapeared and dark came, a big storm; loud, bright and majestic, came in.

Several hours later, the rain is still pitter-pattering on the metal roof of the house. Was it our little blessing that helped to focus the storm? Many other storms just drifted on by in the weeks and months past. What if our blessings had that kind of power all the time?

“Rain Blessing” painting by K.C. Benson.