As I watched a flock of purple finches fight the cardinals for the perches on the bird feeders outside the lady den windows this morning, I thought of a quote by Alfred Lord Tennyson, “Nothing in nature is unbeautiful.” God created nature and beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I was trying to think of something in nature that wasn’t beautiful and for some unknown reasons I thought about a strip mine, the wondrous colors of the Earth’s soil raped in strip mining, leaving the earth barren and desolate. But man created that dismal sight from the land of God’s nature. Gonna have to do some porch swing pondering on that quote.

Rain never seems to bother the songbirds, flocking to the feeders till the rain became a torrential downpour. To most people the sky probably looked dreary and drab today but I sat and stared out the lady den windows seeing the beauty in a grey and heavily overcast sky. I love to study Father Sky’s canvas and see how many shades of colors I can see on his expansive ever changing world of clouds. He’s heavy into his grey pastels sticks lately.

As the afternoon passed, I watched the horizon befogged in a river of smoky mist, caricaturing a rainy day in a forest fairy tale of children’s dragons. The air was cool and the horizon murky, heavy with a turbulent rain pouring down. Father Sky had filled the heavens with rain clouds, their bellies blue and purple, and left it up to Mother Nature to shade them with her watercolors, highlighting the grey clouds beautifully as twilight crept up the horizon and the day ended. I love to get a color chart and match the colors to the landscape. Mother Nature used her grey palette of silver tonight on the clouds, brush stroking French silver, silver feather, and classic sterling silver shades across the clouds in the rainy heavens.

I could just imagine the sun in her duck yellow rain slicker, yellow patten leather rain boots on her slender feet, splashing down the horizon on the arm of Father Sky, who was covering them both with his large mahogany handled black umbrella. Father Sky was dressed handsomely in his pewter London Fog trench coat, cranberry scarf tied fashionably around his neck. He’s wearing practical L.L.Bean duck boots, old and comfortable. Under her rain slicker the sun is dressed in a silver fox grey evening gown, blending in perfectly with the rainy horizon, so when she takes off her slicker and steps on the stage of sunset, she walks down the stage and no one sees her. She turns off the day and Father Sky wakes the rainy night.

Flipping through my quote book while I listened to music, I read a quote on kindness. The world right now needs kindness in all its thoughts, words, and deeds. Seems the world is self-centered and in too much of a hurry to care about kindness and compassion. Kahil Gibran said, “Kindness is like snow, it beautifies everything it covers.” Those words are a wonderful definition of kindness. Made me think of Rosie playing with glitter as a little girl. Once you get glitter out of its container, glitter is everywhere. Kindness should be like glitter, it sticks to everything and keeps being passed around. When we choose kindness, we put others’ needs before our own feelings, motivated by a genuine feeling of wanting to do something that helps others. Kindness can spread like a shaker of glitter but we have to commit to consciously be kind in our dealings with others.

Doesn’t even take any effort to be compassionate and kind, a smile, a hug, a word of cheer. I honestly think it takes more effort to be unkind and impatient. Colossians 3:12 reads, “Therefore, as god’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.” Kindness makes the world a happier place for everyone and I think it encourages others to be kind. I also think we need to be kind to ourselves.

I was listing what I think kindness encompasses and realized the words affectionate, gentle, caring, compassionate, and generous also describe God. He is kind and compassionate and his kindness, like his love, is powerful and everlasting. Even when we sin his love is unconditional and his forgiveness readily available when we repent through our prayers and thanksgiving. We need to let God rule our hearts and try to live in the image of Jesus. God is patient and kind and his everlasting kindness and compassion bless us every day. Let’s strive to put more kindness and compassion for ourselves and for others in our daily lives.

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” — Maya Angelou