Lost in Laundry

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

While we were in Oklahoma, the kids and I spent an entire day at my Grandparents house on Lake Keystone.

As I was watching my kids swim and fish, (and have "A total blast!" as Ryan kept saying), I just kept getting struck by heavy waves of gratitude. I got to grow up here? Seriously?!? (This all-consuming, sentimental gratefulness could be inspired by the fact that we don't have a lake within a 2 hour radius of Lubbock - I was slightly drunk on lake happiness.)

And it's not just that as a kid I spent every day of my summers doing what most people consider a vacation (swimming, fishing, boating, water-skiing, and eating all the food that grandparents happily hand over), I got to do it surrounded by my family and my best friends.

My grandparents were quick to welcome anybody I wanted to drag along to "the country", as we called it.

Not only did they welcome my prepubescent, loud and giggling friends, more often than not they also made the 20 mile drive into town to pick them up. Without complaint. I never gave a single thought to how much gas they were using or how much money they were spending to keep us stocked with Fresca and Snickers' Ice Cream bars, because they never once complained about it. And it's not that money was to be found in abundance - they were just happy to spend what they did have on their grandkids instead of themselves.

I'm glad I got to spend a lazy day there last Saturday. It was good to relax. It was great to see the kids enjoying all the same things I got to do when I was a kid. But besides all that, it was good for me to take the time to be truly and deeply grateful. Grateful to God for the family I was born to, and grateful to my grandparents for creating a great place to grow up.

permalink | posted by Starr at 9:22 PM

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