I Got a Package Full of Kale!!!!!

I was reminded last week about how wonderful my parents are. I have been missing them so much lately. All my family back on the other side of the country. I truly do love living here, but some days (more like a lot of days) I just miss all my people and those gorgeous mountains full of wide open space. Anyways, I got a package in the mail as an early birthday present from my parents and it came wrapped in two garbage bags (that the postal workers put on I'm sure). I took the package inside, got my kids from the bus, and came home to a very smelly house. I took the box to the patio and opened it to find bags and bags of fresh, straight from the garden Kale!!! No wonder the box smelled so bad (that much fresh Kale is an acquired smell I guess). Not all of it made it, but a lot of it did and as I stood at my kitchen sink washing it to put into the freezer and smelling the greenhouse/garden smell I got all teary eyed and just cried and cried tears of happiness and lonliness and all the other reasons one would cry. I pictured my dad watering the garden to grow the Kale. He probably went out and lifted the sides of the green house to let the bees in at some point. And later he would put the flaps down to keep it warm. Turned the hose on and off every now and then and probably pulled a weed or two every time he walked in. I pictured my mom picking the leaves and bringing them in the house to rinse off. I saw her cleaning the dirt and bugs and pulling off the unusable sections. Then stuffing it into bags. Then cleaning up the mess it all made. I saw her pack it into the box, along with some homegrown rhubarb (which made me remember summer evenings barefoot and probably covered in dirt with a stick of rhubarb in one hand and salt shaker in the other), write a quick note, and put in some clothes she had found for us and then race to the post office before noon when the mail went out. Then... I got to stand at my kitchen sink and continue the process of preparing food for my family and marvel in just how much it means to be part of a family. What a beautiful gift that was. It was like we weren't separated by hundreds of miles for just a moment.
I also thought of my in-laws who also grow food and put it in the freezer and pies and do much the same as my own parents do. What a great legacy we come from! I fall terribly short in the whole grow your own food department. I feel I fall short in so many places. Sometimes, I get stuck in that kind of thinking. So glad life is kind of like a roller coaster. The downs make for greater ups (or vice versa depending on the roller coaster I suppose).
So thanks mom and dad for taking the time to once again be your amazing selves and fill my life with love and joy and helping me remember that I am so loved. Because people just don't send a box full of Kale to someone they don't love. And if you're wondering what we're going to do with all that kale.... Kale chips and Zuppa Toscana soup and green smoothies and sauteed Kale... But mostly, I'm just going to take a minute to say thank you to my Heavenly Father for blessing me with the exact parents I need in this mortal journey every time I eat my home grown leafy greens and for helping me remember that I am His daughter and that He loves me most of all.