The April winds are so blustery today. Pushed the swing around with me sitting in it! I sat outside mid-morning and just soaked in the glorious day. The earth is so beautiful the day after a storm. The blue sky is bluer and the white clouds are whiter, the new leaves of the trees greener and fresher. Seems nature is thanking Mother Nature for her rain drops and her sun shines. Could not ask for a more beautiful day.

I ate breakfast perched in the swing and watched the morning bask in the earth’s sunshine. My yard is full of little goldfinches, the males smartly dressed in their bright yellow jackets, the females primly dressed in their olive greens and soft browns, nevertheless just as beautiful in their subdued colors. Joining the goldfinches were doves, cardinals, wrens, a nuthatch, titmice, Mr. Downy Woodpecker, a lone brown headed cowbird, several chickadees, and a small flock of sparrows. The buzzards were riding the wind gusts up the spiral staircase in the spring blue sky. Haven’t seen the hummingbirds in a few days. Don’t know how they hold up with this wind. Guess the squirrels came out after I came in the house. Didn’t see any this morning.

Oldest brother has slowed down his work schedule and I’m enjoying his daily porch visits. We talked about our gardens and I reminded him about tilling up my flower bed. Didn’t have a flower garden last year, only vegetables in the big pots and I missed my sunflowers and zinnias. His tiller is in the shop and I’m going to hound him til he tills up my flower bed.

As the sun began to set Mother Nature brushed layers of pale blueberry watercolors across the horizon and topped the blue layers with the palest of pale pink watercolors. The sun, dressed in a chic gown of apple blossom silk, shimmered over the horizon like the sun waking the day over water. Father Sky was dressed informally, long sleeve white Oxford cloth shirt and flamingo pink plaid waistcoat. His boot cut Levis were starched and crisply creased, barely touching the top of his Bass penny loafers. He took the sun’s hand and escorted her down the delicate twilight of the late afternoon. The sun slowly turned off the day’s light as she kissed Father Sky goodnight. Father Sky arrived to wake the moon just as the cow jumped over the moon and he and the twinkling stars watched the dish run away with the spoon. The night was beginning as the day was ending.

I love a nursery rhyme and the poetry of songs. I love the lyrics to Time in a Bottle. “If I could save time in a bottle the first thing that I’d like to do is to save every day ‘til eternity passes away just to spend them with you.” To me that first stanza just shows how time passes so swiftly and when a loved one dies your love for them is mingled in the sorrow of losing them. You never stop loving them. You carry their love in your heart hoping to be reunited with them in heaven.

I think Kenny Roger’s Goodbye is another example of exploring the feelings of true love when experiencing a loss. “I wanted you for life, you and me in the wind. I never thought there’d come a time that our story would end. It’s hard to understand, but I guess I’ll have to try. It’s not easy to say goodbye.” I’ve told a daughter goodbye and held my husband’s hand as he lay dying and told him goodbye. It’s not easy to say goodbye.

In the south we say goodbye several times when our guests leave — in the house, on the porch, walking them to the car, goodbying the whole way. As our guests drive away we yell, “Y’all come back to see us!”

People say goodbye but God never says goodbye. God says,“I am with you always. To the end of the age,” Matthew 28:20. God loves us and we are permanent members of his household. If we put our faith in his steadfast love we’ll never have to say goodbye. We’ll be welcomed into the kingdom of God’s family. Hebrews 13:5 reads, “I will never leave you or forsake you.” We might say goodbye but God says, “I’ll never leave you.”

God be with you till we meet again.

“There are no goodbyes for us. Wherever you are, you will always be in my heart.” ― Mahatma Gandhi