H. O. T.

It's hot.  Of this I am certain.

I received my 7 day forecast via text message this morning and it could have just said this.

Tues: Hot, with a chance of makeup melting
Wed: Hot, with a 100% chance of sweating through your clothes
Thurs: Hotter than Hot
Friday: Hot, 80% chance of exhaustion
Saturday: Hot, no end in sight
Sunday: Hot, with a chance of rain that will never make it to the ground before it burns up
Monday: Hot
Tuesday: Hot...stay home.  Whatever you want to do today isn't worth getting out in this.

Brought to you by the sun...and text me 12.

It would have been the same thing.  To me, any temperature over 100 is just HOT.

You get my point...right?

And so I, (along with the rest of Kansas) am complaining about the heat.  Our yard is dead.  It is a goner.  Completely.  In fact, I will no longer let Little play in the back yard as their is a crack in the yard that might swallow him whole.  (Okay...that is an exaggeration, but you get it right?)  With the water restrictions, watering twice a week is laughable.  The ground has actually pulled away from the driveway.  My flowers have given it their best effort, but they are ready to give in to the heat.

It.

Is.

Hot.

And yet...life continues to move on.  Day by day.  And summer is coming to a close.  Don't get excited.  I said summer is coming to a close...not the heat.

Which brings me to this conversation I had with a friend in the store yesterday.  (That is what we do.  We go to the local store and run into people we didn't want to see because the sun has melted our make up and we are sweating through our clothes.)  This friend's daughter has cancer.  (Taylor's Mom)  She had a cart full of groceries and she looked about as happy to be there as I was.  We visited about Taylor and I asked how they were all doing.  Good question, I know.  I am usually pretty good at putting thoughts on paper, but when making conversation face to face, I tend to talk like I have a giant marshmallow in my mouth.  Me being me, I wanted to hug her and cry right there in the store.  But I didn't think that was grocery store appropriate and I didn't know if she was a hugger or not.  Non huggers don't appreciate the I am praying for you and will cry with you hug quite as much as huggers do.  This isn't a bad thing.  Hugs just make some people uncomfortable so you have to be careful.  In my mind, I was totally hugging her, but at the store, I was giving appropriate space.  Anyway, we talked about how she was home doing a training for her job and Taylor was still in KC at Children's Mercy hospital fighting her cancer.  Her Grandma had stayed with her so Mom could come home and fulfill her duties.  Sister is in Texas with a friend.  And life...moves on.  We talked about how hard it is to be going through all of this as life continues to move on.  Something I hadn't given much thought.  In the middle of the fight of her life...for her daughter's life...life continues.  We get up.  We live our daily lives.  We go to the store to get dinner ingredients.  We complain about the heat.  And all the while...real people...friends...family...are in the midst of their storm.  I got in the car with my groceries and of course...cried.  Then I prayed.

Lord, in the middle of my every day life and frustrations, people are dealing with problems beyond my comprehension.  Help me to be more sensitive to those needs around me.  Help me to see the insignificance of the heat and the "small stuff", and help me to be ever present in the moments you allow me to see clearly.  As life moves on, help me to see how around me, people need prayer and love.  And in the right place, hugs.  


Please join me in continuing to pray for Taylor and her family as she battles her cancer.  Thank you.


Have a blessed day!
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