July 1

June went fast.

It was a nice month, and the zinnias started blooming.

The morning glories started blooming too, but they are a very deep, dark, evening-looking shade of purple.

June is over and July is here.  Midsummer.  We passed the summer solstice,  and we're headed back towards fall, but we have a lot of good, hot summer days to live first.

The weather has been very hot and humid, the way I like it, so we can set the air-conditioning to 80, and it feels cool and dry when we come in from outdoors.  A cool, dry 80F is my favorite.

Some ferocious thunderstorms have rolled through.  Thunderstorms are hard on zinnias.  I finally decided to leave them lopped over and let them turn and grow upright from where they lie.  It's okay.

It's okay.

It is going to be okay.

Very, very soon there will be a wedding, and that is going to be okay, too.

Yes, it is July, the month of the wedding.

God is in control.

We will pack.  We will drive 450 miles.  We will forget something.  We will improvise.

If God is willing, we will be safe.  If God is willing, we will rejoice with family and friends whom we have not seen in a long time.  We will hug and laugh and cry and eat.  If God is willing, we will enjoy the rare blessing of having an assembled group of folks who are precious to us . . . all together in one place.

At the end, Laura will be married, and we will say good-bye to her, and we will start the long drive home.

A new chapter will begin.

It will be okay.