Sat on the porch late morning and ate my bagel while I visited with oldest brother. Aways enjoy our visits and I’m missing them since he’s working full time now. Don’t know how he holds up with the farm work in this heat. I’m still worn out from the children’s visit but it’s a happy memory making tiredness.

The sky is covered in a layer of thin clouds this morning, light blue sky peeping through the clouds’ weak spots. It’s hot and humid. I saw a pair of cat birds today, so pretty with their red feathers under their tail feathers. Cat birds are feathered in shades of slate gray. They wear small black caps and have dark black beaks and bright black eyes. They were leaning over on the suet feeders and I could see the dark red feathers when they would flick their tails. Never noticed the red feathers before.

After oldest brother left, I put seeds in the bird feeders and washed out the birdbaths and filled them back up. Gave all the flowers a big dose of Miracle Grow. My million bells are just not thriving. I’ve always had good luck growing them. I just wonder if the storm winds have affected them. They were so beautiful last year. Got too hot so I came in and pondered in my reading chair in the air conditioning. I think Penelope and I are getting addicted to air conditioning.

I’m back outside pondering in the swing at dusk. The sun is setting now, a beautiful orange ball, tinting the clouds in shades of purple and blue and orange and pink. An evening breeze is cooling the porch and playing a soft wind chime symphony. I love dusk when the Earth is preparing to bed down for the night. The cardinals enjoy having the feeders to themselves in the quiet of the evening. The really are beautiful birds, both male and female.

I’m pondering on the beauty of a porch swing. My porch has two swings. Porch swing sitting and swinging removes stress and relives anxiety. Porch swings connect us to family and brings us pleasure in the comfort of the rocking motion. Porch swings became popular in the 1880’s. Research says they went out of style with modern architecture in the 1960’s and were placed on porches in the back of the house. I can’t remember our porch not having swings. Don’t know if my grandmother had them here as a bride. Photos of my mother as a baby on the porch don’t show swings.

A porch swing is defined as a swing on a porch often made of wood and having space for two people to sit and rock back and forth, usually connected to the porch ceiling with hooks and chains. I have big swing springs on my chains, makes for a more comfortable seat.

Funny thing is Chief and I hardly ever sat in the swing together here. He’d sit in the double rocking chair and I’d sit in the swing with my feet up. We’d read and talk. Don’t think we ever did any quiet pondering. Some nights when he stayed up late I’d go check on him and find him sitting in the swing and I’d sit with him in the quiet dark of the night.

The porch swing brings me so much pleasure. It is so comforting to me to sit and relax and wind the day away watching the world turn on its axis. Guess the beauty of a porch swing is the connecting with the stillness of nature for me. I love to just sit and watch the cloud formations and the birds at the feeders and all the neighborhood cats and dogs wandering on their daily jaunts. I count my many blessings. The world passes by and I watch from my perch in the porch swing. I’m swinging now, usually sit with my feet up, but the breeze is so cool and the swinging is conjuring up all these memories associated with the porch swings.

As a child I fell asleep feeling safe and secure hearing the squeak of the swing chain as my father sat, one leg on the porch floor, pushing the swing back and forth. The first time a boy put his arms around my shoulders I was sitting in this porch swing. I’ve lulled all three of my children and many nieces and nephews to sleep on a pillow on these porch swings. I’ve had water gun battles with youngest brother. We’d swing as high as we could then shoot at each other when we met in the middle. I’ve played “Let the Cat Die” in these swings and pretended they were airplanes and flown off to foreign lands with my grandchildren. I’ve sat in these swings and wept for my husband and daughter who left this world much too soon.

I can’t imagine my life without a porch swing.

“In the South, swinging is therapy for the soul,” — Unknown