Raging Seas

When I looked out between the raindrops this morning toward the Ellis River behind The Lodge, I knew that we’d had a LOT of rain during the night.  After a long, hot and dry summer with relatively little rain, the river has been pretty low … until this morning, that is.   It was flowing so fast and the waves were so fierce that it could only be described as “raging”.  When I looked about 20 minutes later, my “measuring rock”, (a boulder which ordinarily sticks out of the water about 4 feet), was entirely submerged, and whole trees were being jettisoned downriver like battering rams.  The water had risen at least 8 feet and was just inches below the base of the oak trees on our side of the bank. All I could think of was our youngest son Joshua, who has been on a 3-day/2-night campout/hike in the White Mountains up above tree line, and who was undoubtedly, along with his friends, part of a pack of drowned rats. I imagined him returning to me like a prune, all wrinkled and waterlogged.  When he did walk in the door, bogged down by his backpack and gear, and dripping like he’d just jumped out of the pool, he had a big, Cheshire grin on his face.  Despite the rains and 80-mph winds --- perhaps even because of them --- these kids had an awesome, AWESOME  time!!