It's coming!! It's coming!!

Well it better be coming. I have waited all week for today. Not because it is nice out but because any time now it won't be. The wind will be blowing, the rain will be coming down like sheets of water, the thunder will rumble and oh the lightning. The lightning will illuminate the sky.

It's the first severe weather of storm season. I am a Leitnaker, so of course, this is exciting. I love storms. I get that from my dad and his brothers. Watching a storm roll in is quite possible one of the most majestic things I have ever seen. Watching the sky go from light to dark and back to light.

Storms. Storms are much like our lives. We live in the light and the day to day of most days. We live with the blessings of our families, friends, co-workers, whatever you define as family. We live with what we have and attempt to be grateful for it and we live knowing that the very presence of God is with us all the time.

Yet the storms come. Grief, illness, addiction, cancer, loss of a job, etc... the storms happen. They happen every day to people all over the world and to people right in your neighborhood and maybe even to you. Storms are what make us stronger. They are what bring us closer to the light once again because as God promised, at the end of each storm is a rainbow; a covenant that life will go on, that you will be okay and that with the grace and love of God anything is possible.

Storms are what bring life to this world. The rain waters the ground that desperately needs it and the plants that we long to see blooming. The promise of new beginnings and growth in a world that needs it.

Where will you watch the storm tonight? Some of you may hunker down in the basement in fear of what the storm may bring and that is okay- storms are scary and often bring out anxiety and fear in us. Some of us will watch from the garage and hold onto the very thought of what is to come after. Wherever you watch the storm; just know God is with you hunkering down in the basement and walking right into it.

And if this turns out to be the next great flood; I am convinced that the boat my husband building has to be the next ark because the amount of time he spends on it is..well a lot. So of course God is talking to him and preparing him to be the next Noah :-)

Enjoy the weather, enjoy the storm. Embrace it, hold on to the knowledge of what is to come after. The light, the rainbow and the hope for a new tomorrow.

Blessings to all.

Ali

Happy 80th to my Kindred Spirit

The other day, my Nani, called me and like normal we were talking about flowers. We were both so frustrated that we couldn't plant anything yet and that this Kansas weather was preventing us from doing the thing we love the most.

At the end of this conversation my Nani said "A bit of my soul is in you" and I replied "you are my kindred spirit".

Margaret Beth Hayes (Pinky, Mom, Nani, Bari) turned 80 this week.

She and I share a love of flowers. I wouldn't have guessed this would have been the case but something about flowers bring me closer to God, they bring me hope and joy and in my garden is where I feel the most serene.

My Nani is one of my best friends. We talk 2-3 times a week and while we try to talk about other things we often land of flowers. Our common thread, what makes us one in the same.

My Grandmother has lived a long beautiful life.

In her 80 years she has traveled all over the world, lived in India for a long period of time and was a ministers wife and teacher.

She loved teaching and when she retired took on the task of teaching all of us. She never missed a teaching moment. A chance to take us out the Santa Fe trail ruts on Highway 56, on a trip with her sister and Uncle Jack to tour where Native Americans live, she took us on adventures through her stories and love of a life.

Her favorite phrase is  "never let a good story get in the way of the truth" and that is how she lives her life.

I don't know if she actually covered herself in mud with her sisters after they dug a hole to China to feed the kids there their vegetables and had to walk home in their undergarments. So in an effort to be  "invisible" they covered themselves in mud singing "we are the mud sisters, the mud sisters, the mud sisters". And I don't want to know. The beauty and comedy of that story is one that will always stick with me.

My Nani is always up for an adventure, whatever it may be and she is the light of our family.

She is the ones that makes all love Christmas. Since I was a child I can remember getting letters from her on Dec. 26th that said "remember Christmas is Dec. 25th" I never told her that I could tell the "letters from Santa" were in her handwriting because it didn't matter.

Our Nani is strong, beautiful, eccentric, full of life and will probably out live all of us.

I know how lucky I am. I know how amazing she is and I know that having your grandma as your best friend may be strange but it's the truth.

Her soul is in me and she is my kindred spirit.

Happy Birthday, Nani. I love you.