Sitting on the porch this morning eating my bagel and looking at the overcast sky. I’m trying to tell myself I’m not cold but 69 degrees feels cold since the summer has been so hot. My feet are freezing. Lots of birds flitting around. The yard is quiet and I hear bees buzzing and humming bird wings fluttering.

It’s been so freeing to not have to babysit a cell phone today. Guess since UPS doesn’t deliver on Sundays, I’ll have to wait till Monday to be handcuffed to a new phone. Lord help me if I can’t use the transfer app and have to manually put everything back in the new phone. At least I haven’t been cut completely off from the world. I can send and receive texts on my iPad.

The strangest thing this morning is the wind seems to be blowing only on one side of the street. I’m looking down the street and across the street and the oak trees behind the houses are swaying their top branches and my oak tree isn’t even moving its leaves. Not even a breeze on my side of the street.

I love to watch the wind walk across the street and kiss my trees. It across the street now, bending the old oaks’ branches, shaking the tall strong fir trees, and slapping the stiff magnolias around. The wind kisses really get the bamboo excited and starts them dancing all over the back yard. The bamboo were so pretty, frolicking in the rain yesterday. I need to make a photograph to show how beautiful they are when the wind picks up and the sun filters through their thin silky branches and leaves.

Walking out on the porch this morning I glanced over at a bowl full of calling cards belonging to my grandmother Margaret Lane. I discovered them here in a drawer in a small box years ago and I love to look through them and read the formal names. I was glancing around my neighborhood earlier at the majestic older homes and I could imagine the ladies in the neighborhood driving in their carriages on visits to their friends, their formal calling cards snapped inside their small velveteen purses. If your friends weren’t home your card would be received and left inside the home on a card holder. And you never left your card at the home of a bachelor! Heaven forbid, that rule would never stand in today’s world.

The card holders were usually crafted of silver, handsome bowls and delicate stands that rested on top of a marble table. My oldest sister-in-law has my grandmother’s silver card stand and I’m going to steal it one day when she’s not watching. When I got married my mother gave me a little box of calling cards engraved with Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Byron Saunders. I was so thrilled with them and loved to tape them on gifts. I can remember when the jewelry stores kept the calling cards in their files and would put the card inside when wrapping wedding gifts.

The older calling card etiquette had lot of rules about bending the corners. Bending the upper right corner meant it was a visit of congratulations but bending the lower right meant a visit of sympathy. Read once the Mark Twain used to laugh about this practice and said, “You better take care to get the corners right or you’ll unintentionally condole with a friend on a wedding or congratulate her upon a funeral.” I love the old Southern rules and manners. I was married to a Southern gentleman and he was seriously well mannered.

I went out late afternoon for a swing sitting spell and to look up at the marble slab of overcast sky. I missed the sunset today ‘cause I was watching the Alabama football game. I feel bad describing the overcast sky as dingy Tshirt white in previous writings. I’ve discovered these last few days the beauty of an overcast sky. Today’s sky is marbled with dark gray and light blue streaks. The sun is trying her best to burn through the thick clouds but she succeeds only in thinning out the cloud cover. The clouds are floating fast in two different directions, each side floating on a different layer of the atmosphere cake. I’m thinking maybe the clouds are singing the country song, “We Meet in the Middle.” Now I’ll have that melody stuck in my head.

There is so much beauty in the world but just a glance doesn’t give us a complete picture. I learned how beautiful the female cardinals were when I took the time to study them. I had thought them drab and ordinary. Being thankful and grateful for the people, experiences and things that surround us helps us find beauty in the world. Kindness, patience, love, and joy make a person shine with beauty on the inside. When we’re beautiful on the inside, we’re beautiful on the outside.

Slow down and notice the beauty in the mundane moments of life.

“Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it.” — Confucius