It’s been hot this summer, like really hot, like immediately-melt-the-ice-in-your-drink hot. We’re talking humid, stifling, 90-degree temperatures for the last few days.

And our air conditioner is not working. (We’re in the process of fixing it. It seems like it is only in need of a small repair, not actually “broken.” At least, we hope.) So, over the last few days the coolest place in our home has been, well, outside.

It’s easy to “lose your cool” in uncomfortable situations like these, so it is really important to remember that they are temporary, fixable, and only uncomfortable, nothing more.

It isn’t always easy to do.

I was delighted (and distracted) when, while we were sitting outside trying to keep cool, Jonathan and I saw these stormy clouds roll in:

The air had already cooled down a bit by then (outside, not inside the house!) and sitting outside, talking to each other and reading books (and writing a little for me), we were relaxed and enjoying our evening. I LOVE rain — and especially love rain in the summer, so the idea of a rainstorm helped me completely forget all about our air conditioner trouble.

But it didn’t rain.

Instead, this happened:

And this:

We looked at one another, and we knew that had our air conditioner been working properly, we would have been sealed up inside our house, missing all of this beautiful evening sky. We kept watching.

The shapes of the clouds shifted. The colors became more intense, muted, they brightened and darkened, and danced across the sky.

And if you look really closely, you can even see the silver linings.

~Melissa