Sat on the porch this morning and the breeze was just wonderful. Strong enough to keep me cool as I sat in the swing and pondered. The breeze pinged the wind chimes softly and played a Sunday hymnal symphony. The birds chimed in and the cicadas sang for their mates. The light blue sky was covered in thin see through cotton wisps of clouds. Another glorious day the Lord has made.

Thunderhead clouds appeared around lunch and the bamboo started dancing and the thunder started rolling. I brought all my swing pillows in the house and got all excited about a good rain shower but not a drop of rain fell on my side of town. Heard it hailed and rained a gullywasher three miles over but we missed it here. Maybe it will be our time tomorrow.

Met a mean critter this week — a deer fly. They are vicious biters. They slit your skin with their little razor teeth so they can feed on your blood! Two of them bit me on the face this week while I was in my nephew’s garden. Ran me out of the row of tomatoes really quickly. They chased me to the patio in the back yard. My nephew won’t have to worry about me snitching any more tomatoes with the deer flies standing guard!

I’m back on the porch at dusk and the sun is putting on her pajamas. She’s turned on her bight night light at the top of the giant oaks across the street, getting ready to lay her head down for the night. There are lots of clouds floating around so I know she’s putting paint on her palette getting ready to create another sunset masterpiece. I wonder what colors she’ll choose tonight.

Lots of dinner guests at my bird feeders at twilight. Cardinals, Eurasian doves, titmice, catbirds, a downy woodpecker and four dive bombing ruby breasted hummingbirds. I love to watch the birds on the feeders at dusk. They are quiet and visit the bird bath for a drink before they leave. Had 16 cardinals tonight. I know Chief sent them.

I’ve been pondering on butterflies this week. I’ve seen several monarch butterflies and today I chased a delicate small yellow butterfly all over the yard but it didn’t perch long enough for me to take a photograph. It was a Yellow Pyrisitia butterfly. So pretty in her bright butter color. She’s so yellow, I could follow her with my eyes as she flew across the street to perch on the large red geranium pots on my neighbor’s porch. These butterflies have a few rusty colored spots on their wings. Looks like someone flicked a little mud on their wings but that doesn’t detract from their beauty.

Yellow butterflies are like the cardinals in that they symbolize love and happiness and are spiritual messengers. In some cultures yellow butterflies represent new life and rebirth. I like to think of them as messengers from heaven reminding me Chief and Rosie are at peace and are sending me comforting rays of butterfly sunshine.

What is your idea of a beautiful life, a beautiful day? Life is a gift from God. You have to dare to explore your dreams of what you want your life to be. Don’t search for some life shattering moment to find happiness. Just enjoy the simple joys in life. Live life to the fullest and appreciate every day. When you’re knocked down, stand back up and know you’re promised another day, a rainbow after each storm.

When Chief died I tried to find one thing each day I called a “happy” and I’d write it down before I went to bed. Just some little thing that made me appreciate life. Once it was a bowl of homemade soup. I had been so sick with Covid and that soup warmed me in so many ways.

I tried to make a list tonight of things I consider “happies” in my life — my love for family and friends, sunsets, sunrises, books, my home, my dog, my porch swing, song birds, laughter, spend the night visits with my children and grandchildren, a good meal, chewing gum, tomatoes from the garden, a handwritten letter, music, clean crisp sheets on the bed, freshly popped popcorn, a cold glass bottle Coke, crackers and hoop cheese — my list could keep going forever but all these things are easily attained and are simple blessings that bring me happiness. I’ve learned to appreciate that life is fleeting and we’re not promised tomorrow.

I’d classify today as a beautiful day. I enjoyed the porch and Mother Nature’s gift of the yellow butterflies, spent time with my little nephew and put a smile on his face with a small gift of a family of orange giraffes. I gave his sister a box of paper dolls and she happily scampered off bringing the dolls back to show me, dressed in their new paper frocks and pink tiaras. These are beautiful memories and simple pleasures of a beautiful life.

“Enjoy the little things in life for one day you’ll look back and realize they were the big things,” — Kurt Vonnegut.