Weatherwoman last night: Tomorrow morning will be a GIFT of cooler temps and no humidity! Enjoy it, Kansas City!

This morning at 5:45 am, it was 93% humid awful, so I decided to be intentionally grateful all along the way. I listened to my book and took pictures of everything that made me smile, from the sky above to the grass below…and as I walked, memories came flooding back.

In my former life, between a small town in Western Oklahoma and the nearest Walmart, out in a field, there was a lone tree that stood like a sentry. When my internal world was slowly beginning to fall apart and I was the passenger in a contentious environment along that stretch of highway, I would silently make up stories in my mind about that tree…anything to take my mind off misery. Some days, the tree was the last standing in an apocalyptic world. Other days, the tree was lost and was trying to find its way back home, or it was standing guard for all the young seedlings that were not yet visible from the road.

After awhile, I began making up internal stories about any group of trees when we traveled for hours in silence. Crazy and delusional, probably. But it worked to put my mind in another place that was not filled with trauma and loneliness. I would tell myself that this was MY story and I could write it however I wanted.

I am grateful for the trees who had stories created so I could withstand the pain.

I am grateful for their beauty with clothes on, and in the winter when their natural beauty and structure bares in all glory for the rest of us to appreciate.

I am grateful for early morning ground cover fog with Friday Night Lights practicing across the field in the pre-dawn.

I am grateful for predator hawks who, like trees, gave me a reason to create stories today.

I am grateful for neighborhoods with peaceful water features.

I am grateful for evergreen berries that were reminders of my childhood when I would run around the Friends Church after Sunday evening services playing tag with Lori and David and Leroy and Kim and Denise and Dawnita and a host of others, taking a break to pull berries and then smell their wonderfulness before chasing or being chased again.

I am grateful for the beauty of dew.

I am grateful for the softness of white pine needles.

And I am grateful for the reminder that even in the hard, and especially in the hard, growth happens.

…when I am missing my mom. I wish I could just pick up the phone and call her. I can no longer remember what her voice sounded like, and that makes me so, so sad.

…to take a long walk and enjoy the sounds of the birds and the locusts and soak up the sunshine.

…to send a card in the actual mail.

…to count the blessings parts and not the yucky parts.

…to belly laugh.

…that reminded me of my Bingo days on Tuesday nights with all my substitute moms, and I am looking forward to creating new memories with B-14, I-29, N-35, G-60, and O-72.

It has been a beautiful weekend celebrating a beautiful couple, the marriage of Sam’s daughter. I am so grateful for the favor God has shown to her and her groom.

I am grateful for the path they are now on.

I am grateful to have been a witness to it all.

I am grateful for our family.

I am grateful for Sam’s great nephews and our son who made the party even more fun and then stuck around to help load all the things at the end of the night.

And I am grateful for Ken and Karen, our close friends who spent the evening with us at our table so we wouldn’t be alone in our happiness, and for my closest friend who drove a very long way to just be here at the house for emotional support for Sam and I…and hair help if needed.

We are living happily ever after, indeed.

It’s a very busy week that began with a granddaughter packing up and moving back to college. That in itself was emotional for me, but while we are at it, let’s throw in the largest wedding I have ever been remotely involved in, albeit several once’s removed. Sam’s daughter is about to begin her new life on Friday evening, and although my role is from the cheering section, it is still a busy, emotional week as we get ready to expand our family and celebrate bigtime.

I am grateful for the amazing invention known as fashion tape that was needed this morning for the very first time. Actually, it has been needed MANY times by me, but used for the very first time as I got dressed today. If only it could fashion tape cover everything I think needs to be hidden these days…

(If only I had THAT shape to work with.)

This week involves dressing up for three different wedding-y functions, for which I am a foreigner and feel so awkward and out of place and have to constantly remind myself that no one is even going to notice me in this big picture so get over myself. If you know me at all, you know I do not do dresses or dressing up, so I am very grateful for two assistants, Michelle and Karen, who know what to do and how to advise, so I at least might blend in rather than stand out in the awkwardness.

I am grateful for distractions like puffy clouds and cooler weather and interesting bird sounds and funny cats and work and grandchildren and road trip planning and tv shows and laundry and ironing that keep my mind off all the things I should probably be focusing on.

I am grateful to stand on the sidelines and watch Sam be a very proud Daddy all week long. He is going to have a wonderful, exciting, AND very rough day on Friday, and I can already feel the emotions that will overflow, beginning with the “first look” with his daughter before we all go to the church.

And, I am very grateful for the evidence of God’s blessing on my stepdaughter’s life.

This is what greeted me this morning as I fought my way through the wet blanket of humidity from the parking lot to the front door. So this morning, I am really grateful for the person in my office building who decided to try to make the rest of us smile as we wipe away sweat from our 100 yard hike into the office.

I am grateful for my husband who took care of dinner last night.

I am grateful for my granddaughter who helped clean up after dinner last night.

I am grateful for the guy last night at the ice cream place who was completely annoyed that he wasn’t given a napkin with his ice cream and “became” a real jerk to the high school employee. I say “became” because I hold out hope that he was just miserable from the heat and isn’t a jerk all the time. I am grateful for him because he reminded me to not be a jerk. Anytime. Ever. To anyone. Anywhere. No matter what.

I am grateful for my husband who took care of gathering all the trash and every week, gets it to the curb for pickup.

I am grateful that our two kids say “thank you” without a prompt.

I am grateful for air conditioning and the job that provides a salary to pay for it.

And I am grateful for the reminder this morning that it doesn’t take much to make the world a better place.

I am grateful political signs and ads will go away, for a few days.

I am grateful for answered prayers of yes, and answered prayers of no, and answered prayers of peace and reassurance.

I am grateful for a really cool green grasshopper visit.

I am also grateful for hummingbirds at our butterfly bushes.

I am grateful for a new day and feeling better.

I am grateful for an end in sight.

I am grateful for a vacuum cleaner.

I am grateful for the discovery of online grocery shopping.

I am grateful for completion of the world’s most difficult ceiling fan install and for my husband who is strong and capable to do this on his own with a weak wife who was mostly moral support and emotional support ladder holder.