As a child, I didn’t like the word wait. “Wait, on the Lord” my mother would say. “Wait I say on the Lord” my father would echo the same words. “Put that piece of cake back until you eat your dinner.”

Grandmother would take me shopping with her and if the lines were too long I would cut in front of other people with no respect. Grandmother would tell me daughter you are impatient and you just need to slow down and be still. You are always in a hurry. And I would reluctantly walk to the end of the line where she was standing. I just couldn’t understand why everything was so slow and why it took so long to get from point A to point B.

For a seven year old girl time was not moving fast enough for me. I was out of school for summer vacation, and the hard times we had experienced doing those nine months were a soul grinding trial. The blessed moment school closed for the summer vacation I was put on a bus to Big D. As it is, second grade is and endless drag. Then the ecstasy of leaving this backdrop and waiting only three hours for the bus to arrive in Big D.

The day you finally get the go head, to visit your friends you made last summer when you were in Big D. See its snowing, yes I know, its summer, but for some strange miracle of a reason it is 30 degrees in June, and my fingers shred the hideous snowman and ice icicle outside on the lawn. If any one could live this summer with snow and I mean snow for June and July just like last summer.

I guess you say hold your horses. Stomp the brakes, and wait one more agonizing second it’s time for grace, the blessing of all blessing. The grace of God saw fit to shift nature and cause us to experience winter in June and July where we live and it is the year 2020. Admittedly, prayers of thanks are a rote habit in my family. However, my parents, my grandparents and, in particular, my favorite great uncle, Uncle Gumbrecht, insisted on at lease a moment of genuine gratitude for the miracle of grace.

I was so ready to play down in the street because this is another agonizing visit, as I begun to put on my boots and jacket before the prayer began, when I couldn’t wait a second longer, Uncle G. gently stopped me to say “Son, I know you’re ready to get out and play but thankfulness should precede playfulness.. Now, I do understand that you have been waiting long enough.”

This genius of a man produced the perfect summer prayer; one that everyone tired of waiting but thankful for the bounty at had must surely appreciate. Hence, Uncle G’s prayer simple but, like him, so manly and complete truly a work of inclusively and diversity: God Bless us them and everyone. This prayer, he assured me, covered the whole creation and quickly put an end to the summer wait.