Sat on the porch this morning eating a bagel spread with cherry jam from Mercier Orchards in Blue Ridge, Georgia. So delicious. Had four strawberries on my plate, too. Chief and I had a small strawberry bed for several years. I’d go outside and pick enough strawberries to put on top of my cereal some mornings. So delicious and so sweet. We always ate them instead of making jam or jelly. I would make an angel food cake and whip some whipping cream, let the strawberries sit in a little sugar till they made juice. So delectable! Chief would always ask for a second helping. Put a little vanilla in the cream when you whip your whipping cream, makes it so good. Then lick the beaters when you’re through beating. I still do if there’s no child around. I feel no shame!

Lots of birds today on the feeders and the bird baths. I bought four peaches and they didn’t taste good to me so I cut them up for the birds. I bet Grandpaw Raccoon will come calling tonight for the peaches. Maybe not.

Fatty the squirrel jumped up on one of the bird baths today and sat there a long time drinking. His tail was curled just right and his bright nervous eyes wandered all around while he drank. Soon as I put the camera to my eyes he jumped off. I bet he was parched and hot in his grey fur coat. I wonder if they ever bathe in bird baths. I’m thinking I might need to have a water source on the ground for the squirrels. Gonna get my squirrels a squirrel bath tomorrow.

Got a nice breeze blowing today, strong enough to compose a wind chime symphony and set the bamboos’ thin branches quivering. I wonder about the wind. Has it dried the tears off someone’s face in Lick Skillet, Alabama; cooled the sweat on a farmer’s brow in Slickpoo, Idaho; or pinged the wind chimes on a porch in Monkey’s Eyebrow, Kentucky? Maybe it’s ruffled the white hair on an old man sitting on a park bench with his memories in Tightwad, Missouri. It’s blown through the needles of Ponderosa pines and cleaned the air in Anaconda, Montana, and cooled off the lizards in Lizard Lick, North Carolina. Love these names of towns. Ran across them in my readings today. Chief used to say every word ever spoken is wandering in the wind somewhere. Maybe I’ll hear some of his words in the wind while I ponder in the swing.

I found this prayer today and it really speaks to me. It was translated by a Lakota Sioux Chief named Yellow Lark in 1887. I think the words and sentiments are beautiful. I’m typing it up in paragraph form. Going to use it for my nighttime prayers. Enjoy!

“Great Spirit Prayer — Oh, Great Spirit, whose voice I hear in the winds and whose breath gives life to all the world. Hear me! I need your strength and wisdom. Let me walk in beauty and make my eyes ever hold the red and purple sunset. Make my hands respect the things you have made and my ears sharp to hear your voice. Make me wise so that I may understand the things you have taught my people. Let me learn the lessons you have hidden in every leaf and rock.

Help me remain calm and strong in the face of all that comes towards me. Help me find compassion without empathy overwhelming me. I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother, but to fight my greatest enemy: myself. Make me always ready to come to you with clean hands and straight eyes. So when life fades, as the fading sunset, my spirit may come to you without shame.”

“If your day is hemmed in with prayer, it is less likely to come unraveled,” — Cynthia Lewis