Thursday, May 19, 2022

Overall, it’s been a wet week or two.  We no sooner get a beautiful day like yesterday than more rain, and last week wasn’t too dry either. In addition to flowers, our gardens and yards are sprouting mushrooms.  Part of the fungi world, they are in the grass, along the bottoms of trees, especially stumps.

There are more than four million types of fungi, including yeast and mold, essential to that glass of wine, not to mention the breads we all eat. And they are essential to a healthy ecosystem. They break down wood, plants, and even dead animals, creating a compost for healthy plants.

Mycologists, the people who study fungi, just love this rainy weather because it provides them with new fungi discovering opportunities. We dry weather walkers will wait. We just need to remember when walking in the woods or out in a park, to be careful not to step on the many kinds of fungi we will see.

Prayer for the Day

Gently the life-giving rain is falling this morning,
   Providing opportunities for growth we often do not see;
Softly the water touches the earth at the dawning
   And the smallest fungi sprout all about us.
Let us touch the earth as lightly as the rain today,
   That surprises us with your infinite creation.
In the name of the One who walks with us,
   Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.

Thoughts for the Day

Advice is like a mushroom.  The wrong kind can prove fatal.
     - Charles E. McKenzie, British writer

If only one could tell true love from false love as one can tell mushrooms.

     -Katherine Mansfield, American novelist (1888-1923)

With God are wisdom and strength; God has counsel and understanding.
   If God tears down, no one can rebuild; if God shuts someone in, no one can open up.
If God withholds the waters, they dry up; if God sends them out, they overwhelm us.
   With God are strength and wisdom; the deceiver and deceived are God’s.
    Job 12: 13-16