Pondering in the swing on the porch today. Have a metal colander full of popcorn in my lap and a fruit jar of Dr. Pepper, sporting a purple straw. Penelope is in her pen snuggled under her red bird blanket. She just heard the brakes squeak on the FedX truck up the street so she had to get up and investigate. She couldn’t see the truck so she didn’t sound the alarm.

My bird friends are so delightful today. I watched a big fat wood thrush take a bath in one of the bird baths. He really enjoyed himself, ducking his head under the water and splashing around with his wings. He splashed around for several minutes. I know that water was cold. The wood thrush hasn’t been around the yard lately. Wood thrushes don’t feed from bird seed feeders but I see him occasionally on the suet feeders. He hops around on the ground under the bushes scratching and turning over leaves in the yard looking for insects. He has a lovely song.

There is a beautiful male cardinal in the yard today, too. Never seen a cardinal this red. He’s as red as the numbers that glow in the dark on my bedside clock. As scarlet as a cardinal’s robe. He sat on the edge of the bird bath and a male American goldfinch, just acquiring his yellow feathers, was perched close by, their feathers colored so intricately by God’s paint brush. I wonder if they know how handsome they are. Wish I had captured a photo of them. Gonna get my digital camera out, from my freelance writing days, and snap on the zoom lens and capture some of these birding moments.

The coolness has now brought me off the porch and into the lady den to finishing my pondering. All my plants are standing at attention and saluting me so guess I watered them just in time. I’m going to do better with my watering. Yes, I talk to my plants but no, they don’t talk back to me, only to themselves.

Y’all remember riding around on Saturday nights or Sunday afternoons with your parents or grandparents. A form of family entertainment in a simpler world. Daddy and Mama would ride my youngest brother and I around the Dairy Queen in middle brother’s yellow Jeep. Sometimes we’d get a Coke at the dairy queen and once I remember Daddy stopped at the Martin Theatre and bought us each a box of popcorn. Little brother and I were always perched on the small truck bed of the Jeep watching for the street dog who loved to chase us. He was close enough to jump up and bite us. We’d squeal and hold our legs up.

Years ago on lots of Sunday afternoons, I’d gather my children and we’d take Chief’s mother for a Sunday afternoon ride. We’d ride to Kellyton or Hackneyville and stop at an old filling station and get us a Coke. Grandmother, as the children called her, always wanted a strawberry Nehi. If we stopped where ice cream was dipped she’d want three scoops. The ice cream place had a two scoop cone and would squish the third scoop on top. Always loved to see her eating those three scoops. She always got strawberry.

I remember the last time the children and I went for a Sunday drive with Grandmother Saunders. Rosie was about four and we stopped at a filling station to get us a drink. I was asking everyone what they wanted and Rosie yells out, “I want a beer!” Well, I was mortified and the look on Grandmother’s face is burned on my brain. Before I can figure this out, Rosie pipes up again in an excited little voice. “Every time I play with Wesley we drink beer…you know, Woot Beer!” Thank God for root beer! I’ll never forget the way her voice sounded when she said, “I want a beer!” Such a priceless memory. Need to write that down in her baby book.

These beautiful moments of childhood are so fleeting! Life should be a matter of moments. We don’t even know the beauty of all these moments because life is full and fast paced. The earth needs to slow down and smell the roses her soil is growing. Take time to sit down and just do nothing. The world won’t fall off its axis if you take a break. Stop and be still. Watch the birds, read a good book. Sit in the yard and lay your head back and feel the sun warm your face. Take a walk, ride a bike. Unschedule your life. Sometimes it’s ok to do nothing. Strive to feel peace and serenity in your life everyday.