Leaves of Green, Sky of Blue

As I sit here on my balcony, listening to the woman next door helping her disabled brother into the car, and watching the man who lives above me walk his tiny girly white dog, I am reminded once again, for the hundredth time since leaving Dallas, how much I love living here. I am lonely sometimes (although that is not as frequent as it once was), and frustrated often (hello, I teach high school), but I am so lucky to live here. I am sitting eye level with the balcony railing, and in this position, without moving my head, I can see at least 30 trees, all with green leaves waving in the sun, and let me tell you, Crayola's alleged "leaf green" cannot even begin to compare with the colors of these trees with the sun bouncing off them. Those leaves, against the absolutely clear blue sky, bluer than I've seen in years, is just gorgeous. I know, because I keep it on my Yahoo page as a reminder, that the current temperature in Dallas today is a raging 96 degrees, and since there is a chance of thunderstorms, I am sure the humidity is in the upper 80% to 90% range. It is 70 degrees here, with low humidity and a very gentle breeze. Also, because it is Dallas, there will be a heavy, smudgy, dusty smog hovering over the city, making it hard to breathe and resulting in days where it is literally poisonous for anyone with minor health problems to be outside. No one here even knows what "red" or "orange" days are, and while I am sure that Seattle produces pollution (after all, traffic here rivals Boston on a bad day), the wind and rain keep everything clean, resulting in a city with one of the lowest air pollution levels in the entire US. (Have I mentioned no allergies this year for the first time in 10 years???). Days like today help make this whole adventure worthwhile. Moral of the story? God knows what he's doing. Sometimes it is incredibly difficult to trust him, but apparently that was my lesson last summer and this past year, and what have I learned? That it is totally, absolutely, undeniably worth it.