Today has been so pretty, a pale blue sky full of fat sun kissed clouds, their bellies lightly shaded grey, pushed around by the whispering and sometimes roaring winds of March. The sun broke through mid-day and warmed up Mother Earth. I tried to ponder in the porch swing but it was just too chilly when the March lion’s wind blew. I came back in and settled in the lady den to watch the day from the room’s nine windows. I love this quote from Lewis Grizzard, “Springtime is the land awakening. March winds are its morning yawn.” And the way March is yawning today she’s not fully awake yet.

I can hear the wind chimes, their loud tintinnabulations are the brass section in the yard symphony this afternoon. The bamboo are dancing in the stiff breezes and drying out their slender leaves in the sun’s warmth. I’ve watched the birds enjoy the feeders and enjoyed their bird songs mingling with the wind chimes. Fatty the squirrel has been taunting Penelope as she perches on the back of the sofa watching him through the window.

Found a sweet note from a friend in Alexander City in the mailbox today. Thanks friend for your kind, heartfelt words. I appreciate them and will definitely put you on the Shady Oaks list. Don’t forget to bring a bag of sunflower seeds for our bird friends and cash for poker. If you have pup or cat, they are welcomed, too. And our room is a bra free zone. Smile! Our list of roommates is growing, we might have to get bunk beds. I blow my car horn every time I pass Shady Oaks on the way to visit my grandchildren. Afraid to stop, they might keep me.

The pageant of sunset began as the sun with her blinding rays of silver light sat perched on the edge of the pageant stage. Mother Nature brushed her watercolors across the low horizon in a pale pink champagne glow as sundown began. When the sun donned her pageant gown of rainbow silk taffeta and grasped the elbow of Father Sky, twilight sighed softly and began the day’s demise. The taffeta train of the sun’s gown brushed across the horizon as she walked down, deepening the champagne glow into a fiery peach and colored the higher clouds in layers of pale huckleberry blue. Father Sky kissed the sun goodnight as she turned off the day’s light and hurried to wake the moon and stars. He hung the waxing gibbous moon, almost fully dressed, high in the night sky and pinned the bejeweled stars on the inky black sky canvas of night. A day ends, a night begins.

I’ve watched the pollen, such a vital part of the Earth’s reproductive system, cover my car and porch. We think the yellow dust is an insignificant part of spring that worries our allergies and stings our eyes. But without the wind distributing this life giving pollen the human race and all of Earth’s terrestrial ecosystems would die. I’m on my porch looking at the layer of yellow pollen and I’m thinking this yellow dust is a sprinkling of God’s love on the world.

The wind of our Christianity blows over the Earth and God’s glitter is sprinkled like pollen on the population. Some of us take our faith and share it with others, helping spread the word of the Lord. “When the winds of change blow, some people build walls and others build windmills,” Chinese Proverb. Some of us timidly keep our faith close and when the winds blow hunker down and try to weather the storm alone. We build a wall around our faith. Others of us reach out during the wind storms, helping bolster the faith of others weathering their winds, building a windmill and spreading our faith through our prayers and thanksgiving, firm in our belief that God’s grace will calm the storm’s winds.

March winds are blustery and unpredictable. Being a Christian has blustery times but God’s love is always predictable. No matter how the winds blow, soft like a lamb or harsh like a lion, we can count on God to buffer the wind and hold us during the storms. His love and grace will always anchor us.

“Spring is far more than just a changing of seasons; it’s a rebirth of the spirit.” — Toni Sorenson