Time to pray that spring will arrive in full force

Unlike the congregants who swarm the Bishop City Council meeting and the lone voice in the wilderness at Inyo County Supervisors meetings, I have been reluctant to pray in public.

But the arrival then non-arrival of spring has broken my spirit and weakened my faith, so the only thing left to do is to openly, unabashedly pray for spring to arrive in full force.

However, I’m going to leave Jesus out of this effort. Great Guy, love the bread and fish, tossing the money changers out of the temple, water and wine, and the Sermon on the Mount is one heck of a “life hack.” Topnotch stuff. But He’s a big picture Guy who gets tons of requests, so I don’t want to bother Him with a paltry prayer about the weather.

Besides, there are a batch of other deities whose job description specifically spells out they are the ones handling the weather situation. Plus, most of them have been on the Weather Watch Job for a couple more centuries than our guy Jesus, so they know the ropes.

Let us pray.

Oh Gaia, Goddess of Earth, please step up your game a little bit and deliver a True Spring. You tempted us with your power and goodness by delivering a spectacular first day of Spring, and we thank you. But did you have to load up the day before with spitting rain, little shots of hail and winds that would blow a harpy off course?

The, after we basked in Ra the Sun God’s wonderful rays, you hit us again with snow and rain and wind and all that wintery stuff. Have we displeased you? Do we need to open our hearts to your power? Let us know. Really. We want to stay on your good side.

Please, Gaia, if you need help to bring sunny skies and warm temperatures that allow your humble servants to meander Mother Earth on bikes while wearing T-shirts, flip-flops and shorts, I beseech you to enlist Geb, your buddy and the Egyptian God of the Earth. I know as an all-powerful Mother Goddess you do not need a simpleton male God to lend a hand, and I am absolutely sure you have the power to keep Geb in line and not let Him “mansplain” how to bring permanent Spring to the Eastern Sierra. So let Him help with some little stuff, like the wind, if need be.

There is no doubt, Gaia my Earth Goddess, that you can easily stifle the chicanery coming from Loki, the Trickster who seems to be tossing snow and wind our way like He’s operating in the frozen north. Besides, a Norse god is not a go-to for Spring, right? Send him packing back to the land of snow and glaciers. Anyway, I’m sure you can easily throttle Loki and put him on the bench with one hand while using the other hand to bring out Spring flowers, greenery, leaves sprouting from trees and everything else Spring.

But if you, Dear Goddess Gaia, do need a helping hand, I’m

praying you link up with and tap into the power of White Buffalo Calf Woman, the Lakota

Goddess who brings a deep, deep link to the forces that have sustained Her people for thousands of years.

Oh gee. Look at silly little me. I’m sorry, Gaia for thinking I know what you think is the best for other people and the Earth, or that I can interpret your powers and tell others how you would handle things or how you should bring about Spring. What a foolish little guy. No one really knows

what you Gods are up to or how you will deal with our little prayers.

Sorry about that.

Anyway, whatever you can do will be great. We put our faith in You.

Amen. Er, A-women.

(Jon Klusmire of Bishop hopes the regular contributors to the Inyo Register’s weekly Religion Page will pitch in and help out with this spring thing.)