Life in the mountains is good. Very good.

We have had rain storms almost every day lately but I don’t even mind those one bit. Just means I don’t have to water my plants (the ones that the deer have left alone, that is).

The air smells clean and fresh right before the rains come, the breezes off the lake come in through the open doors and the cats love to sit by the doors sniffing the fresh air.

This weekend we had a wonderful visit from our former neighbors when we lived on Running Deer Lane in Freeport, Illinois. It had been years – a lot of years- since we had seen them but it was just like old times catching up and picking up where we had left off. It made it a perfect day and part of our perfect weekend. We are so blessed when we realize how many friends we have that are from all over and are lifelong friends.

I have shared before our love of going to Faith Memorial Chapel in Cedar Mountain during the summer. We just love the open air worship and the rotation of pastors gives a wide variety of preaching styles and denominations. Today’s worship ticked all of the boxes for me. Wonderful sermon about grace, The Lord’s Prayer, The Apostles’ Creed, the Doxology, Amazing Grace and a soloist who sang a selection from The Messiah. I am not sure why, but the combination of all of those things made this the perfect experience for me. I came away feeling so filled and content.

It certainly seems to be easier these days to embrace all of the wonderfulness of life. Of course there are things that still upset me (like my rant last week) but in the big scheme of things I am embracing the wonderfulness of life. The place where we live, the people we know, the faith that we have — it is all pretty fabulous. You, included. I have some of the best followers of this blog and even on the days when I blather on about nothing (like today) you show up.

I am so grateful for you. Thank you.