Today was such a beautiful Sunday. The sky was colored robin egg blue and the clouds were hiding away gathering for their afternoon stroll onto the horizon hoping Mother Nature would dress them in a colorful pageant gown for sunset. She didn’t disappoint, dressing every cloud and the horizon in her favorite peach and pink hues. A few clouds gathered around the edges of the group not wanting to change their dresses and hung in the sky in their rain filled colors of purple and gray.

I watched the dusk creep across the yard and watched the sunset’s colors melt into the horizon, the orange and pink paint brush strokes stretching across the sky where the horizon meets the ground. I waited to see the stars and the radiant moon but Father Sky didn’t pin them on the sky canvas tonight. He let the gloom of night hide his stars and moon.

The red-breasted nuthatch was around this morning. He loves when I put out new suet cakes. He runs down the trunk of the oak tree, his beak pointing down. He’s so handsome with his gray and blue feathers and his little black hoodie. Seeing a nuthatch means we have faith in the spiritual world and are supported by Mother Earth. I’m agreeing, I feel that connection.

The song birds were serenading me while I ate breakfast. Two yellow butterflies entertained me flitting around and prancing on the flowers. The finches are still thirsty, keeping busy visiting the birdbaths. The wind chimes were pinging in the soft breeze sounding like bells of organ music at the beginning of the quietening of a church service.

The devil raccoon climbed the the bird feeder pole last night and took the top off of one of the feeders but didn’t spill the seeds out. I’m going to spray the pole with cooking oil spray tonight and he’ll just enjoy a pole dance instead of some sunflower seeds when he visits.

Read lots of quotes today and wrote a page full of them down. Several stuck a cord in me. “Life can be a tightrope or a feather mattress.” That quote defines life so accurately. As we mature we make decisions that affect ourselves and ultimately our families. Sometimes we’re walking across a tightrope in life hoping we don’t fall off into eternity. We grasp for straws when we should be grasping for strength from God. Some of us only pray when we’re on the tightrope and then worry if our prayers will be heard. Praying is just like talking. Doesn’t take much when we lay our heads down at night to thank God for the day and its blessings. Want to land more often on that feather mattress when you fall off the tightrope? Pray and accept God’s answers. He’ll always catch you when you fall.

Another quote I pondered on while perched in the swing is “Without suffering, there is no happiness.” We all know life is not a bed of roses and we’re not promised that hardships won’t be a part of our life’s travels. Hardships help us grow and help us appreciate the blessing in our lives. Suffering through hard times teaches us to see that life is worth living. The presence of happiness and the presence of suffering help us go forward in the direction of enjoying life. Happiness and fulfillment come from overcoming the hard times. We need to embrace the hard times and learn from them. We need to be content with what we have and with the circumstances of our lives.

True happiness is not about riches or wealth. True happiness is a state of mind, a feeling in our hearts of fulfillment and inner peace. It’s the feeling of truly enjoying life, finding fulfillment in the experiences of living, a desire to make the best of each day.

“Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things, — Robert Breault.