A Spotted Blanket

   I spent most of my childhood living in Beggs, Oklahoma. Anytime I tell someone this I quickly follow with, "It is about 45 minutes south of Tulsa," because, let's face it, not many people know where Beggs is. I am genuinely surprised and excited when someone does know about my little town. It almost feels like a secret we share.
   If you haven't already guessed, Beggs is way out in the country. I spent a lot of time outside digging in the dirt, climbing trees, or playing with our abundant supply of cats. Seriously at one point we had nine or something like that. On the plus side, we never had a mouse problem!
  
  Now a days I live in the city. I love all of the places around me here. Giant parks, Five Guys Burgers and Fries, splash pads, Hollie's Steakhouse, Hey Day, Raising Caines, The Warren Movie Theater, Yamatos... Oh the food. Oh the fun. I love the city.

You know what we don't have here, though?
  Stars.
Ok so we have some. Maybe on a clear night if I was to go outside and stare at the sky for a while I could make out a few good ones but there will always be light pollution. They will never be as bright and as beautiful as they are in the country.

  I loved watching for shooting stars in Beggs. My dad either shared this passion with me, or maybe he just was passionate about his daughter, because he would come home from a long day of work, help me gather blankets pillows, spread them out on our front yard, lie on the ground with me and we would wait. We would look up and try to spot the quick, bright, bold streaks in the sky.

  Under the stars, my dad would tell me jokes and I would tell him about school. Sometimes my brothers would join us. Most of the time it was just me and my daddy.
When it was just us two he would share his faith with me. We would talk about how God made all of the stars. I imagined God throwing a spotted blanket over the earth every evening. I couldn't comprehend back then how much more complex our universe is.
  The universe, galaxies, planets, stars.. infinite, shining, orbiting, burning, exploding.. I mean..whoah.

  Then if you zoom in on our little town of Beggs, down an old dirt road, even farther down a gravel driveway, you would see a girl and her dad pointing at the sky and making wishes.
 
   On one particular night I hope to never forget, you would hear my dad say, "What is that smell?"
Then you would hear a grown man let out a yell when he realized that one of our many cats decided to use the blanket as its own personal toilet. Unfortunately for my dad, the pile of feline feces was right by his leg.
  It got all over his pants.
  Needless to say that night our star gazing ended rather abruptly.
But it was a while before they ended altogether.

  Thank you Daddy for sitting with me so many of those nights and just being there.
Thank you for teaching me to recognize the beauty that God has created.

  I can't wait to teach my kids the same lesson.

Barefoot

  I will just start this off by saying I have an amazing big sister.
  Becky is about 6 years older than me, which is a sizeable gap. It was always very easy to look up to her.

   We didn't always get along.. I would get into her stuff, and unplug her alarm clock, draw hearts in her yearbook over her friends that I had a ridiculously huge crush on. (Yes, I am finally owning up to that even though, duh, everyone knew I did it.)

  Was I just a brat? Probably. I honestly don't remember any 'bad' things she did to me. According to Manoah, one time mom told her to apologize to me. When mom walked out Becky said, "I'm sorry you're so stupid."
  It makes a pretty funny sibling rivalry story even though I don't remember it.

  Even though we could get on each other's last nerve I always idolized my big sister. She had so many friends and she wore the coolest clothes. She would even let me borrow her t-shirts sometimes, because what else are sisters for?

  When Becky moved to Norman to go to the University of Oklahoma we went from seeing each other daily to just holidays and summer time.

   One summer day when she was home it started pouring rain. Becky and I took off our shoes and ran outside to play in the yard. It was a beautiful and warm so we decided to take a walk. We ditched our shoes on the porch and started off barefoot down the road. We walked around our neighborhood at first. Lost in conversation we expanded our neighborhood hike to the main road. We walked as far as the sidewalk would take us. When we reached the end we turned around to trek back home.

   A man in a truck pulled over and offered to give us a ride. I'm sure he thought we were two poor girls stuck in the rain. We thanked him and told him we were fine, because we were. Our time that we spent together had become something rare and rich. I wanted to soak up Becky's company as much as I could before she left again.
  I don't remember the conversation we had I just remember the feeling of fun, love, and a deep friendship that was building between us.

  This memory came back to me as I was driving home today after visiting Becky and her babies. I love living close enough so that I can see her any time I want. I love that our kiddos are close in age. Shamblin loves Demma and he talks about her constantly.

  I am insanely blessed with a sister who radiates love and kindness from her soul. A soul that belongs to God.
  To this day I still strive to be like my older sister. I thank God for walking with us, barefoot, in the rain that summer day. He is cultivating an unbreakable bond and it is better than any gift I could ask for.