The day it felt like summer

I know all of you who live in the Pacific Northwest or who have spent significant time there are going to say, "Cry me a river", but it's rained a lot lately. This has has been the coolest and dampest June that I can recall. I don't think I'd be far off if I said that we've had either 60% humidity or some percentage of precipitation almost everyday this month.

Yesterday however was a different day, the kind of day you expect on June 27th. The shone high in the sky and there were just a few clouds in the sky and when they covered the sun you were happy for the reprieve. We spent the day at Separatist Road by the pool. In my mind that's what summer is about spending your days with a pool near by as you work on some sort of yard or home improvement project. I spent my time watching the kids in the pool and pulling the never ending supply of weeds which sprout up around the pool. Nearby was my brother continuing over a week's worth of physically demanding repairs on his Jeep. Occasionally he'd call Don in to help him with some task or the other. Don spent his time surveying the land, looking at the numerous projects that lay before him and playing kick ball.

It struck me as I watched all of this happening around me that all was OK. That the projects would be never ending, but you had to look at them as projects for if you looked at the entirety of what needed to be done you'd never begin. And then I thought of my grandfather who must have been smiling down watching his great granddaughter delight in the wonders of the pool which he labored to create so that just such a moment could happen. The interminable projects he had made it through to bring that moment to me. And then I thought of my father who had struggled to ensure that we could keep that dream alive. And I was thankful. Thankful beyond words for all that I have every last bit.


(my grandmother's roses and the black raspberries Robert and I are waiting to gobble up. Thorny yet equally lovely bed fellows)