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A Whale’s Gratitude–For Real

I rarely post stories like this because I like to be responsible enough to credit the author. Someone sent me this awhile back and sadly, we have no idea who wrote the original article. If it is you–please let me know and I’ll be happy to credit you with this fabulous piece. Today–April Fools Day felt like the perfect time to tell a wonderful story that unlike many things you’ll hear today–is actually true.  It’s a good reminder to all of us that showing love and gratitude is one of the most important things we can do in this life.

*****

…The Whale… If you read a recent front page story of the San Francisco Chronicle, you would have read about a female humpback whale who had become entangled in a spider web of crab traps and lines. She was weighted down by hundreds of pounds of traps that caused her to struggle to stay afloat. She also had hundreds of yards of line rope wrapped around her body, her tail, her torso, a line tugging in her mouth.

A fisherman spotted her just east of the Farallon Islands (outside the Golden Gate) and radioed an environmental group for help. Within a few hours, the rescue team arrived and determined that she was so bad off, the only way to save her was to dive in and untangle her. They worked for hours with curved knives and eventually freed her.

When she was free, the divers say she swam in what seemed like joyous circles. She then came back to each and every diver, one at a time, and nudged them, pushed them gently around as she was thanking them.

Some said it was the most incredibly beautiful experience of their lives. The guy who cut the rope out of her mouth said her eyes were following him the whole time, and he will never be the same.

May you, and all those you love, be so blessed and fortunate to be surrounded by people who will help you get untangled from the things that are binding you. And, may you always know the joy of giving and receiving gratitude.

I pass this on to you, my friends, in the same spirit.

It’s a good life

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Happy Birthday Emily!

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“One Thousand” Day

Although you may not know it–

today is a holiday.

This day–March 31, 2011 marks my 1000th post on Gracious Rain.

That, my friends is a lot of writing.

In the time it has taken to write those 1000 posts we have had 1,391,123 total views.

That, my friends is a lot of reading.

To thank you all for your kind attention over the years—we’ve decided that a giveaway is in order. But not just any giveaway— a One Thousand Day Giveaway!! No, no–not for the thousand dollar bill–but better!  :}

The winner of this sweet little giveaway will receive:

1. “One Thousand Gifts: A Dare To Live Fully Right Where You Are” the best selling book by Ann Voskamp

2. “Candy Galore” 1000 piece puzzle by Springbok

3. 1000 pieces of something that I love—and I bet you’ll love them too. Trust me on this.

Now, then– all you have to do to enter this One Thousand Day giveaway is to tell us, in the comment section, something that you are thankful for. We’ll add each one to our Gratitude List and Quote Rotator.

Enter as often as you’d like–no limit! However–each entry must be a separate comment. Winner will be drawn next week on Friday, April 8 at 10:00 am.

Good luck my dah-lings and thanks so much for reading Gracious Rain.

We are grateful for you!

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Happy Birthday Jesse!

Happy Birthday Susette!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

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The Random Road

When you blog like some kind of maniac, it is really hard not to take pictures of every single thing you think is remotely interesting, odd, beautiful or just plain nuts. The problem with that is that then, you have to find a place to use all those wildcat photos that don’t really connect to anything—just to prove that there was a point to you taking the shot in the first place.

This is that post. Be brave.

We pulled into a gas station in a remote little place and right behind it was an old school–I couldn’t really tell if it is abandoned or still in use. To tell the truth–it was more the birds that caught my attention. It was a swarm I tell you and we were completely ready to barricade ourselves in the car if they changed directions. It was a bit Hitchcock-type creepy.

Sign on a gas station in the middle of nowhere. Makes you wonder if this is some kind of combo meal or something. I don’t want to know what the burger is made out of. Yikes.

 

Just thought this one was kinda cute.

Please, please will somebody explain this road sign to me? M-1/4 ? Are they kidding? Is it some kind of Algebra problem or what?

And here we have L-7/10 Road. Um, yeah. Stop the madness or get help.

Seriously.

Off to our left was a huge mountain that honestly looked like a big pencil sketch…or sand castle. Either one…or both.

While pulling into a quaint little quilt shop I spotted this teeny tiny man carrying a laundry basket down the street and it struck me as funny. Pretty sure he was a regular sized man, but what’s with the laundry basket? Just saying…

This is said “quaint little quilt shop.” Hen House Quilts and Gifts was a lovely break from that long old road.  One or two of us spend a ridiculous amount of money here. There’s no explanation for it other than craziness…or eccentricity. Likely both. Dang fun though.

Pretty little farm house with a pretty little porch that I wanted to pick up and fly to my town. If only those trees weren’t in the way–we could actually see it.

Not such good news–but luckily, we had no intention of going that way anyhow. Take that–Berthoud Pass.

What? Really? Was someone playing a prank here?

I wasn’t fooled.

Then, from out of nowhere–buckets of snow came dumping down on us…with no warning.

Wellllll…maybe a little warning.

Dicey driving for the next 30 miles, but then, just as quickly as the storm came on…

it shut back down and we rode off serenely into the sunset…and our place.

Home again, home again,

jiggity jog.

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::Quilts For Japan:: The Connection

We promised the good folks at “Quilter’s Newsletter” that we’d send the first batch of our lovely Quilts for Japan to them this week. Feeling quite prudent about our options, April and I decided to hand deliver them, which meant of course–ROADTRIP!!

The drive from Utah to Colorado is–for the most part–a scenic, beautiful thing as long as you are wise enough to do it in the daytime.

Note to self: Driving through snowy canyons and mountain passes with ice freezing on your windshield is much more terrifying at 11:00 at night–therefore leave earlier next time.

We realized that this was the wrong time of year to judge the landscape and we had to constantly remind ourselves that in a couple of months this prairie would likely be a gorgeous shade of green…

and that this ominous “edge of the world” type drop off would be filled with blossoms and hence even more…umm…scary looking. We stayed far away from that thing–I’ll tell you!

We were chased along by several of these cloud bursts before it became way too dark to see anything. When we finally arrived in Golden, Colorado, we checked into our hotel close to midnight. I personally can’t remember much after pulling the covers  up to my chin and closing my eyes.

We woke up to a nice dusting of good old, Colorado snow.

Here’s a sweet little poolside gazebo right outside our window. Alas–no time for ice swimming on this trip…ha ha.

We did our best to write and attach just the proper message to each of the quilts. This symbol is suppose to mean “Love.” At least we sincerely hope it does!

I wrote most of the English messages and April tackled the Japanese. Isn’t it lovely?

Next, we carted all those quilts back out to the car. We got some pretty strange looks from people. I wanted to say, “We always bring our own bedding…just in case,” but I wasn’t brave enough.

After following April’s IPhone GPS–we finally arrived at the Quilting Magazine headquarters…

and even found the perfect parking place.

We were warmly greeted by Senior Editor and author, Kelly Smith, and Contributing Editor Dana Jones.  They seemed quite pleased with our quilts.

It was exciting to see that we were not the first to send donations for the Japan project.

Each box held a breathtaking offering of warmth for our friends in Japan, but honestly–

we felt pretty toasty inside ourselves. :}

Thank you Dana and Kelly and Quilter’s Newsletter for giving us the opportunity to serve our neighbors. You’re amazing!  Second shipment coming soon.

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Festival of Colors

Dane and his pal Tyson spent the afternoon at the Festival of Colors in Spanish Fork.

All I can say is…

wowwww.

Well, ok, that’s not all I can say.

Apparently, the way this event goes–is, everyone in the crowd has small bags of colored powder–not sure what it’s made from…maybe we should look into that–

and after a long, dramatic countdown, everyone tosses some of the color into the air in lovely, brilliant bursts.

The colors mix together on the way back down and turn the air gray and smoky.

Then, of course, the craziness begins and everyone starts throwing their colors at each other—kinda like a paint ball attack…

only with dry, colored powder. I asked Dane if he could even breathe, and he said, “Ummm, I don’t know.”

I don’t know?!

Yeah, now I’m REALLY thinking about that mysterious powder…in their eyes…in their ears…in their mouths…in their brains.

Very scary indeed.

Yeah, I’ll be on the lookout for any sign of odd or peculiar behavior from these nut jobs.

More so than usual, I mean.

~sheesh.

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