Trying to describe today and the perfect word is sunshiney! The robin egg blue sky and the puffy clouds, gathering together outlined in grays and blues, are so pretty. They yard is quiet, not many birds this morning. I was watching the wind shake the trees behind a house down the street. Was just like Jurassic Park. I was waiting for the T-Rex’s head to appear. All week the trees behind this house have been blowing when everything else has been still. Can’t help but wonder about it.

Been enjoying the butterflies today and thinking about how wondrous the colors are in nature. Don’t think we can find comparable colors in a box of Crayola crayons. Mother Nature and Father Sky and the Lord have incredible artist palettes.

I went around taking photos of the blooms in my yard this afternoon, marveling at all the shades of colors, and I saw this huge bug flying around the violet million bells. Looked like a tiny, tiny humming bird. Had the same body and wings but didn’t have the long beak of a hummingbird. Never could get a good enough photo to blow it up and study. Looked on the internet but haven’t yet found out what it was. Maybe it’s a hummingbird moth.

The sun kissed the horizon tonight and a pale blush spread through the clouds. Such a subdued sunset in the palest of pinks. Perfectly beautiful.

Loved receiving this quote today on a text from a friend. “Just living is not enough,” said the butterfly, “one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower,” — Hans Christian Anderson.

We can live our lives or we can love our lives. Life is fill with heartbreak, tragedy, and difficult decisions. We all need sunshine in our lives and the hope of the sun’s warm rays after storms. Sunshine brightens our days, makes us feel good, and gives us hope. We can bring sunshine by our actions and deeds into other people’s lives. Treat people like you want to be treated and you’ll feel those rays of sun. See somebody having a cloudy day, try to change their weather, and bring some sun back into their lives.

And freedom, that’s something I think about that we just take for granted and never even think about. Lots of men and women gave their lives so we can live freely. Religious freedom, personal freedom, political freedom… We can speak our minds without worrying about reprisal. We can be who or whatever we want to be. Think about the freedom of the butterflies in their brief lives, no set path or agenda, just winging the day away feasting on nectar and pollinating the flowers and plants. They deal with rain on their delicates wings and heavy wind blowing them around. They don’t worry about the storms cause the sunshine will dry their wings and send them back on their journeys. They trust in the warmth of the sun. We should trust, that through our prayers, God will bring sunshine and love into our lives.

I think needing a little flower in our lives is a metaphor for beauty and truth. We all need to have a semblance of beauty in our lives. We can see it in the smiles of our children and grandchildren or in the beautiful colors of a sunset. Beauty is all around us even in the storms of life. If you look closely you can find beauty and a small ray of sunshine in the darkest of days. When the storms of life close in, pray for the warmth of the sun to heal your heart.

“Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day.” — H. Jackson Brown, Jr.