You may or may not know that I live in the town of Snohomish in Snohomish County, Washington State. A tiny little town nearby has been in the news - Oso, Washington. There's a beautiful drive we take in the summer which winds through the Stillaguamish river valley up to the mountains - Diablo Dam and Washington Pass are favorite places to stop. Oso is in the foothills and is a "don't blink or you'll miss it" little town on a bend in the river. This is where the nightmare mudslide was.
When it rains for 40 days straight we try to remember the rain is a gift. It's why we have towering trees and rushing rivers. Salmon and eagles and great white snow geese. It's why we mow the lawn 3x a week and have cabbages the size of basketballs. It's why one little pumpkin seed pushed into the ground by a five year old chubby little hand will six months later produce 10 pumpkins on one vine. The rain. It is a gift.
So this is hard.
Thank you for your thoughts and prayers and well wishing for this corner of the world. I and my family are miles from the disaster and are quite safe, but the mud has touched us all in some way.
