Cell phones, to be able to keep in touch with Rowdy while he's away at a pistol competition.
A healthy body that can run, a pretty pathway to run on, podcasts to make the time go faster and good weather.
That lady that I always see running around Lake Murray with a big smile on her face. Okay, she looks a little cray-cray, but she's having a good time. It makes me smile and enjoy my run more, too.
Rowdy's Granny, who always had candy at her house. Some people have a candy drawer. She had a candy ROOM. It was a bedroom that had stuff stashed everywhere--dresser drawers, the closet, maybe even under the mattress. I don't know. I saw boxes of thin mints and cordial cherries at Dollar Tree that reminded me of her today. The thing is, they have to be properly stale to really taste good. These boxes will not be properly aged for a few more years.
And speaking of grandparents, my great-uncle Hubert passed away last week at 94. After reading his obituary, I went to Google Maps to find the church house in Pocatello, Idaho, where they will be holding his funeral. Then I followed the map to my grandpa and grandma Dahlstrom's, then "walked" the few blocks to Grandma Bright's, then down the street and around the corner to Great-grandma Dahlstrom's. My grandmas were different in personality from each other (and "different" in some ways, I guess), but they were loving and I am very grateful for them and for the ways they loved and shaped me. Grandma Dahlstrom's house smelled clean and fresh. Toast with really good butter on it, buttered popcorn and a Coke, lilacs, rose bushes and crossword puzzles make me think of her. Grandma Bright's house smelled like baking. Quilts, delicious baked goods, pancakes with bacon in them, rooms with lots of beds for the grandkids to have slumber parties in, temple work and service make me think of her. Great-grandma's house doesn't have a particular smell memory for me, but she was definitely the type of grandma who had a big clump of ribbon candy in a bowl in her living room. She had kind of a high, reedy voice, and she was very gentle.
One more bowl of chicken rice soup for breakfast.
The love of education, which is making a little thought brew in the back of my mind. I'm starting to think about perhaps getting a Master of Health Administration degree. I have no desire to be a hospital administrator (they are the devil and nobody likes them), but I'm interested in what is going on in healthcare these days. Sometimes people (patients, friends) say things that come from frustration, illness and misinformation. I'd like to be able to really understand the issues and the system to be able to at least try to educate them.
The glorious feedback loop that comes from expressing gratitude for all of the things that God has given us.
And here's Elder Russell M. Nelson of the Quorum of the Apostles to tell us more:
Thanks, Elder Nelson!
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