Many years ago, our daughter wanted to have a pool party for her birthday. Since we didn’t have a pool ourselves, we ended up having it at the pool at Browder Park and that way we could then use one of the shelters there to eat the food and open presents. Everyone had a great time splashing and swimming in the pool and just as everyone started getting out so we could move over to the shelter, we decided we needed to get in a hurry because it started looking like we were going to have a storm.

I’ve never worked well when I start feeling rushed, so I suppose that’s why things didn’t work out so well after that. You see, I got the cake, drinks and paper products out and carried them from the car to the shelter. Then I went back to the car for more stuff but I couldn’t get in the car again. Careless me — I had locked the keys in the car. It was so frustrating. I could see the keys lying on the seat of the car and the doors were all locked so I couldn’t get to them!

I rushed over to my husband to see if perhaps he had an extra set of keys — but that would have been way too simple and things just didn’t work out that way. A storm was coming up and we couldn’t get in the car. My husband and some of the other guys tried to get the door unlocked but with no success. I was getting more and more upset as the clouds looked more and more like it was going to start pouring any minute.

I had at least gotten the birthday cake and candles out of the car, so I went ahead and lit the candles and we sang “Happy Birthday.” I tried to not even think about the chips and other stuff (including her present) that were still locked in the car since I couldn’t get to them anyway.

We didn’t waste any time letting our daughter go ahead and start opening presents because the sky was getting darker and darker. Just as she finished opening her last present, it thundered, the lightning flashed and then the bottom fell out.

We just stayed under the shelter as most of the party guests got into their cars and left. Thankfully, the storm was just one of those quick summer storms that come and go quickly. After it passed over, we called the police department so we could let them try opening the car door for us. It only took them a jiffy to get that door open that we’d been trying to open off and on for about an hour.

Have you ever thought about how weather affects what we do each day? Just think about all the soccer, baseball and softball games that have been rained out and had to be rescheduled. A lot of weddings have also had to be moved inside that were originally planned to be held on the outside. Our son-in-law’s sister recently had an outdoor wedding. Thankfully, they were able to get all the way through her ceremony before it started raining. However, the rain did cancel a lot of pictures they had planned to take. Hopefully, I’ll eventually get to see some pictures of the wedding party, which included my daughter, son-in-law and all four of my grandchildren!

Sometimes the weather even affects events that are not planned to be held outdoors. In 2016, Hurricane Matthew ended up cancelling one of my family reunions. The reunion wasn’t going to be held outdoors, but some of the family were going to be traveling from out of town and we didn’t want anyone to be in danger so we called it off. We thought we would reschedule it for a later date, but I’m afraid that just never happened.

Some people seem to blame everything on Mother Nature. The definition of Mother Nature is: nature personified as a woman who was the source and guiding force of creation. I absolutely disagree with that statement since I consider God to be the Creator of the earth and all that dwells therein.

Since God created everything in the universe, He is always in control of all of nature, including the winds, waves and the clouds in the sky. Man has learned a lot about tornadoes and trying to better predict where they are going to go and who they’re going to affect; however, man still cannot cause it to rain or stop it from raining.

Scientists keep on trying to be in control of nature but have made very little headway towards doing so. It’s probably a good thing that they’ve not been able to figure out how to make it rain or snow on demand. If they are ever able to do that the results would be worth a lot of money. Can you imagine what some countries would pay if they could then cause it to rain anytime, anywhere? I’m sure there wouldn’t then be any more deserts anywhere in their country, but all their soil would instead be well-watered.

If we could control when and where it rained, nobody would want it to rain on their parade, their cookout, or their outdoor wedding. That would be a real problem though for farmers who needed rain on their crops, or people who like to have a nice green lawn (even if that means they then have to mow it).

Don’t you think it’s probably a good thing that man doesn’t get to decide when it rains or even when the wind blows?

I feel it saves a lot of fussing and fighting for us to just let God continue to be in control!

Azalea R. Bolton is a resident of Richmond County, member of the Story Spinners of Laurinburg, and member of the Richmond and Anson County Historical Societies.

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Azalea R. Bolton

Contributing columnist