A Grateful December – Day 2 – Storms

‘Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass.  It’s about learning to dance in the rain.’ ~ Vivian Greene.

My step grandma is 97.  Amazingly she has been living in her own home up until a week or two ago. She had some surgery, a week and a half ago.  She’s surely been on my mind.  (And, to assuage any concerns, she is back in our home town, recovering nicely in the local hospital.)

I’m thankful for the newfound abilities to shift my thoughts into how lucky I am to have had this woman as my grandma.  For the first 15 years of my life, I had a really neat grandma.  I would suspect that had I known her further into my life, I would have learned where the bulk of my creativity originated.  She made crafts with my brothers and I, she knew how to make us feel like co-conspirators, she once gave me a smile that rocks my world when others give me the same smile.  After she passed away, my current step-grandma and my grandpa married.  Because she’s always known my grandparents, she’s been able to fill in some of the missing stories that our natural grandma may have shared.

I’ve found myself considering how thankful that I have had TWO amazing grandmothers when most people have... two amazing grandmothers.  ?  And then it also struck me that even though I’ve only had one set of grandparents, my heart is still considering me lucky for having had such great ones – absolutely no consideration to the fact that I never knew my mother’s parents.

And so, today I find myself grateful for this sweet and kind woman – a woman who is an amazing model of how to live a kind and loving life.  And I am thankful for the storm to give me time to consider how fortunate I am.

"30 Days of Gratitude" ~ Day 28 ~ Gratitude and Loss

"Expressing gratitude for a loved one lost is one way to keep that person's spirit alive."

Oh the memories. :)

My grandparents, Charlie and Louise, my father (tie) and uncle.

Of that apartment building on MacDiarmid Drive in Brandon.  Where my brothers and I would play (read: fight) and we were *so* afraid that the police would come and arrest us.  (They were close enough to hear them from next door.)  And playing pick-up-sticks when my bros and I would go to visit my auntie in that same apartment. How fun it was to blow up that air-mattress together.  And meeting up with the same auntie at different stores while shopping with my mom.

Also of being at the shop with my grandpa.  Hearing that I was his favorite grand-daughter. (Read:  only grand-daughter.) And of that silly dog, Toolie, who we'd torment by kissing grandpa.  And playing with those fun battery operated toys at Christmas.

Also of taking walks with my grandma down to the railroad tracks.  Picking up shale so that we could glue them to pieces of board for our 'amazing' works of art.  And making those cardboard Santas that would jump and dance with the pull of the string.

What lovely relatives we have had. I am grateful.