Every Tuesday I keep coming back to my most basic blessings when I think of gratitude. I'm so grateful for motherhood, my kids, the gospel of Jesus Christ and my work. Today, I was thinking back to one of the conversations I had with my Grandpa Coleman (Morris' namesake) before he passed away. I loved hearing of the times he was a young man parking cars for celebrities in CA and when he was just starting his orange grove business in Lehi. But one of his many stories has been popping in my mind constantly. He was just a little boy when the Mesa, AZ LDS temple was being built. He lived in what is now Pioneer park which overlooks the north side of the temple. Air conditioning was a luxury not even heard of in his young days and so to cool off in the Arizona heat at night, they would wet sheets and put them over the windows of the sleeping porch and pray for a breeze to blow so that they might feel a little cool air. They would even wet the actual sheets of their cot bedding. Uncomfortable probably doesn't begin to describe what they felt in the summers here.
I think of just how spoiled I am. Sitting here in my beautiful home with the air conditioning cranked cold, a fan blowing above me while I sip some chilled water with ice and lemon. Honestly, if my ancestors could see how I live and how quickly my gratitude slips away, they'd be rolling over in the Mesa City cemetery graves! So I'm grateful for a lot of things this week, AC being near the very top of my list.
