Blue sky every where I look today, perfect periwinkle sky, clear and sunny. Nothing to mar the blue sky canvas but a few crows and a few buzzards flying around warming their wing feathers in the bright sun. Kinda like a spring morning with a winter cool breeze. The wind has been strong at times beating a winter carol out of the wind chimes. I’ve been sitting in the swing trying to match words with syllables that correspond with the wind chimes bonging. I’m trying happy day, happy day but just doesn’t fit correctly.

I saw a yellow butterfly flitting round the pansies mid-afternoon. The pansies are just glorious with the sunshine kissing their petals. Pansies remind me of little old ladies with timeworn smiles, skinny with smoky grey hair, dressed in a shirtwaist, sensible square toed shoes, strapped and low heeled, little paten leather purses resting on the crook of their arms, beauty parlor born every Saturday so their curls stay till church on Sunday. And they probably sit on their same pew every Sunday and don’t want to see you in their seat when they walk down the aisle. Nothing turns that grey hair red faster than them walking down the church aisle seeing you occupying their pew. Trust me, been there and done that, complete with the look and the talk.

Was walking Penelope when the hour of sunset started ticking down. I had been watching a pale peach light embrace the horizon as we walked down the sidewalk, the color making me think of Nehi peach soda. I knew it was going to be a glorious sunset because Father Sky had pushed his white pastel across the skyline, sketching clouds for Mother Nature to color. At first glance I could see the sun, a blinding beacon of silver light, getting ready to step on the stage, partially hidden by the bare limbs of a huge old oak tree. Mother Nature was waiting to orchestrate the sunset pageant and when the sun, escorted by Father Sky, walked down the horizon’s stage, the stage was curtained in delicate watercolors in shades of glass bottled Nehi sodas, lightly brushed across the clouds in pale layers of lemonade, grape, peach, orange, and blue cream flavors. I was thirsty for a strawberry Nehi as I watched the colors brighten and blend together across the horizon, so beautiful as the candy colors faded into the soft twilight. You know there is a God in heaven when you see a magnificent sunset, a wondrous display of the day ending with a new day promised.

Thinking about Nehi sodas, made me remember taking my mother-in-law for a ride in the country one Sunday afternoon with my children buckled in the back seat of her car. We stopped at an old country store in Kellyton because Grandmother Saunders wanted a strawberry Nehi. I asked the children what they wanted and Rosie immediately said, loud and clear, “I want a beer!” After I had over come heart failure trying to comprehend how she knew even knew the word beer she pipes up again, “Me and Wesley always drink “woot” beer when I visit his house.” Thank you, Jesus, I was redeemed in my mother-in-law’s eyes. Rosie wanted a “woot” beer, not a Budweiser, and her precious little self got that “woot beer.” Don’t remember what I drank, I was still catching my breath from my heart palpitations.

Didn’t do any quote surfing while I visited the grandchildren so I have no little scraps of paper with quotes I can read and choose from tonight. I opened my daily quote book and decided to just use the first one I read. And its fits so well with my life. “The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions – the little, soon forgotten charities of a kiss or smile, a kind look, a heartfelt compliment, and the countless infinitesimals pleasurable and genial feelings,” Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Happiness is so easily obtainable. We’re all responsible for our own happiness, we choose happiness. It’s right before us as we travel our daily lives when we put our faith in God and our Christianity into living our lives. Living a life of love and kindness covers us with a cloak of happiness. The small everyday smiles and kisses and hugs from our family and friends are free for the taking and we should give them as much as we accept them. The smiles and compliments we give strangers help make the world a kinder gentler place. Told a teenager once in Walmart that I loved her purple hair. The girl’s smile lit up the aisle and she smiled at her mother. I gave her a moment of validation. I had watched her walk into Walmart with her mother and I could feel the tension between them as they walked into the store. Maybe they had a better afternoon after that compliment.

I think we have to live day to day to be happy. We can’t worry about the past or be anxious about tomorrow. Sometimes we just have to accept life as it is and go with the flow and given enough time, with God’s help, we can accept the outcome. We put our lives in God’s hands and travel the path he’s created. Course there will be storms and heartaches but those are moments that make us cherish the happy days in the sunshine of God’s love. We need to be present each day and live it fully.

“One day at a time, sweet Jesus, that’s all I’m asking of You. Just give me the strength to do everyday what I have to do. Yesterday’s gone, sweet Jesus and tomorrow may never be mine. God help me today. Show me the way, one day at a time,” — Song lyrics by Marijohn Wilkins and Kris Kristofferson.