Here, on the west coast of Canada, we’re experiencing a heat wave. At 3:15 p.m. Monday (June 28) I took a photo of the thermometer in the shade at our front door. I read it at 43C which converts to 109.4F. That felt blistering hot for us! And because we don’t have air conditioning everything stayed warm long past the peak of the heat …surfaces, doorknobs, I felt like I was sleeping on an electrically warmed sheet and pillow.
I was reminded of the poem I wrote some years ago and included in my book Family Reunion (2007).
HEAT WAVE
Yesterday’s fever
broke in the evening
This morning
cool soothing air
bathes face arms legs
the neighborhood refreshed
as if it slept
deep and exhausted
after sickness
But sun’s warm hand upon my back
warns temperature is rising
and burning heat will soon
again blister the brown grass
make bright-eyed impatiens
and roadside chicory
droop in the dazzling delirium
We will lie in darkened rooms
splayed under whirring fans
flushed fighting off sweats
ice-tinkling drinks within arm’s reach
till evening
when the fever breaks again.
© 2007 by Violet Nesdoly
Thankfully the temperatures have moderated since then. But such a weather stretch drives home our vulnerability. We humans have only a small temperature range in which we can comfortably exist. I am in awe of the complexity of creation which God has fine-tuned for plant, animal, and human flourishing!
Tomorrow, July 1st and Canada Day, always feels like the official beginning of summer to me (a holdover from years of school rhythms, I guess). I’ll be taking a break from weekly blogging during July and August. I may post occasionally but not on any schedule. I hope to be back to a weekly post in September.
Wishing everyone a Happy Canada Day and a happy, safe, and healthy summer!
Violet Nesdoly 