Holiday weekends are a milestone and, for those of us who love summer, Memorial Day weekend beckons from Labor Day onward.

To prepare for it, I’m guessing many of you will be rushing about checking on things that have lain dormant since last summer. Some of you may also have these days circled on your calendar as times to do things around your house such as clean furnace filters, water filters, pool filters….

Today, however, I’m thinking about cleaning mental filters.

Because as we head into our holiday weekends, filled with anticipation, people in Oklahoma—not to mention Boston and Texas—are struggling to come to terms with unbearable loss, pain, suffering.

They are not going to have the summers they had hoped and planned for.

Closer to home, it’s more than likely you know people who are coming to terms with the loss of a loved one, an unexpected diagnosis, a heartbreaking car accident….They, too, will not be having the summers they hoped and planned for.

So as you dig out your linen pants and your summer dresses (as I’ve also been doing) take a moment to clean your mental filters, so that when you do bump into the traffic jam, the unexpected airline delay, the lousy meal at the over-hyped restaurant, the family member spoiling for a fight over the backyard grill, you are able to keep a sense of proportion.

Because the majority of us are blessed beyond our wildest dreams—I know I am—and if our gratitude can ripple outward, it may help to make this holiday weekend truly joyful for others.

Wishing you all the happiest of happy summers,

Frances Cole Jones