Today was so pretty with its cotton ball clouds and deep blue sky. The clouds, thin wisps rounded like pulled cotton, floated gracefully across the horizon like seeds from a dandelion. It was a little too cool and breezy for porch pondering. So many birds on the feeders. The cardinals kept finches off the side yard feeders and fed all day on the feeders out the lady den windows. Penelope sat on the back of the sofa watching the birds. I think she enjoys them as much as I do. The resident neighborhood hoot owls had a hooting contest late afternoon. Always scares Penelope when they hoot. She hunkers down when she hears them, looks at me for reassurance.

Didn’t catch a raccoon last night but something got the marshmallows. I think those wild dogs messed up the trip arm of the cage. They bent the arm almost in half. I tried to straighten the arm out but don’t know if it will work. I put the cage on the table on the deck, worked on the trip arm again, and reset it. Maybe I straightened the arm enough. We’ll see. The raccoons might all be gone now.

The sunset was a pageant of wild fire tonight. The sun, bright white and gleaming, started her roll down the horizon in a silver light and when she put her foot on the horizon she lit a wild fire of orangey-red and spread the muted flames across the sky line in a pale orange. Mother Nature painted the sky a blueberry purple, stroking layers of honey gold watercolors underneath the high blueberry sky. So pretty as the sunset fire slowly died when twilight tip toed over the landscape. Father Sky hung the moon and jeweled stars and woke the night in a soft silent darkness. Love watching the day’s light turning off and the night coming awake.

Flipped through my quote book tonight and stopped to ponder on this sentence, “Shoot for the moon, because even if you miss you’ll land among the stars,” Norman Vincent Peal. Big dreams, big ambitions make us strive to accomplish something significant in our lives. We might not get to the moon but along the way of pursuing our goals we’ll have lots of other meaningful accomplishments and twinkling stars on our way.

I’ve always made a living by writing professionally but I’ve yearned to write my own personal thoughts. After Chief died I was encouraged to start putting my thoughts down which led to my Ponderings from the Porch Swing blog. I mainly write for myself from a need to express my thoughts and daily experiences in my small town world and I’m thrilled that people enjoy my humble thoughts. I’m not reaching the moon yet, but I’m walking around near the stars.

When I turned the next page in my quote book I read this by Thoreau. “Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads.” I love that and so many of us never realize the heaven we have on Earth. God’s wonder is all around us, even in the air we breathe. I never fail to see heaven in the glorious sunsets, the beautiful songbirds, the colorful garden vegetables, the blooms on wildflowers…. and in my mind I think how glorious heaven must be compared to the beauty of our planet. God has certainly blessed us in our heaven on Earth.

“There’s a heaven on earth that so few ever find, though the map’s in your soul and the road’s in your mind.” — Dan Fogelberg