Time to Celebrate: Island floating by!

I decided to write today without a pic! Pics will be coming of our 40th anniversary roadtrips this summer! This summer we celebrate with my sister and bro in law in MO and KS with the Tall Grass Prairies and time to relax soon! Then we spend a week with our kids in CO! Talk about heaven on earth and a break from responsibilities at home!

We celebrate 40 years of the up and downs of marriage, ins and outs, roller coasters, quiet times, retreats to home in the evening, conversations and keeping up, loving each day and islands floating by! Yes we did see an island floating by on the lake last week!

Our Neighbors who are moving to CO very soon and will be greatly missed, called after two nights of crazy storms --- with hail, wind, rain and tornadoes down the road --- to say an ISLAND WAS FLOATING BY our house on the lake!

Sure enough, we went outdoors and there quietly floating by was an Island as proud as could be with tall grasses of all colors -- like the Tall grasses we hope to see in KS near Emporia!

It was one of those SURREAL moments in my life when the world stands still as we watched this small island moving peacefully by us in the middle of the lake -- an island that was torn loose from its home in the storm!

It very slowly floated by and we wondered if we were seeing things but it was real even as we kept wondering if it was and marvelling at it -- an island floating by us that had been created from the winds and rain!

So i guess that is how i feel right now as we approach our big 40 wedding anniversary now soon on June 28 -- it is like all the many memories of our marriage and dating, having children floating by -- now they are grown and making lives of their own as i contemplate this floating island as it slowly moves by me very quietly -- as it turns to night in the bluest sky after storm clouds!

May you be able to watch the islands with tall grasses floating by in your life and your relationships too -- and as we remember the moments to savor -- the stories in our life together and remember them, tell them, celebrate relationships, commitments, the ups and downs of life, the daily conversations, the problem solving -- and the griefs, the sadness with the deepest joys that have to come to us in forty year across time as life floats by as a gift!

I am also reflecting now on all the friends along the way floating by on that island of grasses in the evening light ----- and our children, loved ones who give us love and life, true happiness like those grasses waving to us on their way by! And the times we can still share together!

Enjoy nature and all those you love around you and we hope to as well now as we celebrate 40 years of marriage this summer!