Weather, Worms, and Warnings

Okay, first of all, is the weather a subject you’re not supposed to talk about in real conversation? If so, why? I’ve heard that it is, but I don’t understand. Is it because everyone can see what the weather is like and it’s rude to be Captain Obvious?

Well, if you do think it is rude to discuss the weather, read no more, because the weather is the topic of this post. I think weather is fascinating. I took a meteorology class and learned very little. I kinda understand why it is windy and I know to duck in cover if my hair stands up in an electrical storm because that means I’m about to get struck by lightning. Thank you Brother Huffines. But that’s about all I learned. And, PS, Brother Huffines was not my meteorology professor, but he did come in and guest speak to us about lightning, as he does specialize in it.

Today I woke up to pouring rain. I love the rain. It smells, sounds, and feels delicious. I think it is fascinating how water falls out of the clouds in droplets. I’m not sure though how it works, and it’s fine with me to just acknowledge it as one of God’s many miracles. At UNC I was walking with a friend on a cloudy day that smelled like it would rain. He said that the smell was disguisting because it was the smell of worms coming out of the ground. Now, I’m not completely sure where rain gets it smell, but I’m pretty sure it’s not from the worms. I could be wrong though.

When I was in elementary and middle school, my brothers, sisters, and I would go outside and wait for the bus every morning. The day after rain, the worms would be out of the ground. We didn’t want them to get stepped on or eaten by birds, and so we put them on the cement cover of our well. When we got home we would check on them and they were still there, but all dried up and dead from the lack of ooze and water coming out of them. I’m not sure if we were trying to save their lives or what, but we definitely weren’t helping them, and we were actually lowering their percentage for survival. Oops. Sorry worms, please forgive our childhood stupidity.

While we’re on the topic of weather, let’s discuss all the natural disasters that are going on around the world. In Doctrine & Covenants it talks about if people don’t listen to the Still Small Voice, or the voice of the Prophets, missionaries, and Elders, earthquakes, lightnings and thunderings will increase.

Doctrine & Covenants 88:88-90 “88. For after your testimony cometh wrath and indignation upon the people. 89. For after your testimony cometh the testimony of earthquakes, that shall cause groanings in the midst of her, and men shall fall upon the ground and shall not be able to stand. 90. And also cometh the testimony of the voice of thunderings, and the voice of lightnings, and the voice of tempests, and the voice of the waves of the sea heaving themselves beyond their bounds.

We definately see that happening. How many huge earthquakes have their been lately? And is it true that the earthquake in Chile knocked the earth out of it’s regular orbit a little or something like that? And every year I say “I don’t remember there being this many storms last year!”

Last summer I lived at home in the middle of nowhere where you can see for miles and miles around you without light pollution hiding the stars. They are beautiful. This summer when I move home I think I’ll have a girls night or something for all my Denver-Area friends and we can star gaze. Oooh, let’s do that for my birthday, we’ll have a giant sleepover. Or, if it’s cloudy, that means there is probably lightning all around our house, so we can lightning-watch instead. Any way, I go outside when there is rain or to watch the lightning, as long as it isn’t right above my head. I do NOT want to get hit by lightning. Many times I have felt the earth shake and tremble, felt the windows rattle, and I feel like Heavenly Father is communicating to His children to come to Him. Like when the 5 little ducks come out to play, over the hills and far away, mommy duck says “Quack, quack quack!” No little ducks come running back. But the Daddy Duck says, “QUACK! QUACK! QUACK!” ….5 little ducks come running back. We’ve ignored mommy duck for a long time, now daddy duck is calling because he wants us all to return home safely and it’s almost dark and the weasels are going to come out and eat us. Weasels are nocturnal, right? Well, whatever predator eats baby ducks and comes out at night, daddy duck is trying to save us from that. Maybe owls?

Heavenly Father is trying to get us to return to Him safely. He calls us as he needs, and right now He needs thunder, lightning, and earthquakes. But, remember, when daddy duck said QUACK! QUACK! QUACK! 5 little ducks came running back. That is 100% of the ducks. God’s work and His glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. Atonement? Complete. Immortality? Check. Eternal life? Cue the lightning.

But how is this possible? Something that I know about Heavenly Father is that he’s nothing like the Greek god Zeus, who hurls his lightning bolts whenever he gets angry. I know Heavenly Father uses His scientific laws to fulfill his purposes. Now don’t get mad, but when I hear about global warming, I think that explains it. Heavenly Father doesn’t have a lightning machine with a wrath setting. There seems to be a lot of pollution in the air, and we learn about acid rain in science, so pollution obviously has an effect on our atmosphere. I’m not quite sure about all the global warming theories, or Al Gore weighting the numbers, and I’m definitely closer to being a worm than a scientist, just pull off my limbs. It just makes sense to me, scripturally. I’m not saying that it’s all the hairspray used in the ’60′s and ’80′s, but the way we waste and pollute has to have some kind of effect, especially since it has all happened so suddenly. Pollution didn’t used to exist, it came about just in the last century or two. This also doesn’t mean that I’m going to go through my neighbors garbage on trash-pick-up day to sort their recycling. I’m pretty sure the earth will receive it’s paradisiacal glory before we use up all it’s resources. But I also don’t think that we should be wasteful. So, add that to the list of global warming theories and name it after me. Or maybe after Joseph Smith, he knew about it a long time before me.

Isn’t it amazing how we digress from the weather? Maybe it isn’t such a bad thing to talk about. The subject has revealed several things about me, namely that I’m a worm killer, that I’ll probably get struck by lightning, and that I believe in Global Warming. Don’t be hatin’. Unless you’re a worm.