Imagine

This morning I woke up to a gloomy sky. It was slightly foggy from a leftover, early morning drizzle. It was cloudy as puffs of cottons balls drifted over the Monument. The hue of blue reminded me of the middle of the ocean where the whales and dolphins hang. It was cold, like the cold of your first morning at school, not like the cold that scratches your nose and ears. The sky was hinting at another rain.

And I loved it. These kinds of days make me want to live in Seattle in a high rise apartment, with an oversized chair and an oversized cup of chai latte. These kinds of days just make this girl feel warm and fuzzy.

Then, around half-past my lunchtime salad, the sun was peeking around the shifting clouds. There went my dreary, cloudy, Eeyore day. My dog was watching the window with a pining I haven’t seen since my younger brother was 5 and wanted to go to McDonald’s.

“Walk?” I said. He immediately put on a new face; the one that says, ‘You better believe I want a walk!’

I opened the door and took a deep breath in. Aaahh, there you are, Sun. It was as warm as a hug. I felt my skins’ pigment soaking those rays right up. And we walked; around the fire hydrant and by the bushes, and past that yard with the basset hound who thinks he is a Newfoundland. And I remembered my plan that started exactly a year ago; to be a marathon runner. So, we ran.

Lower elevation is a wonderful thing.

I remembered how I love these days; the days where the sun is smiling down across the hills and grass…er, dirt…making the ground warm and the flowers reach for the sky; the days that are picture perfect for riding a motorcycle down the highway or driving a golf ball down the fairway; and the days that are specially marked in the calendar for bbq’s and patio lunches. The days that make running worth it.

And I enjoyed this, too. Imagine, two of my favorite and most beautiful days, thrown into one day. Imagine blessings and friends and happiness and love thrown into one life…

I think of the times when a large, Titanic-sized blessing came into my life and how certain I was that it was the best thing to happen to me. And then came along another big blessing-bigger and better than the first. And instead of discarding the first one, I added them to a treasure chest hidden deep in my heart. I carry them like pictures in a wallet.

So, I have questions and curiosity, wonder and some weary, but I know that the blessings are yet to come. Just when you think, ‘It can’t get any better than this,’ it usually does. And just when you think there is no sunshine left, there usually is.

And if you’re from Nebraska or Colorado, you know that it can rain and shine all in the same day