Today has been a preview of a summer’s Sunday. It’s been hot on my porch! Father Sky has sketched clouds all afternoon, digging around in his old dusty pastel box for grays and whites and purple sticks of chalk to shade his creations. Right now I’m seeing layers of light gray cigar smoke clouds, some bottom heavy with rain, topped by white sun kissed fingerlings of clouds. Mother Nature is getting ready for her sunset rendering and is preparing her palette to shade the clouds with her watercolors. I’m watching a layer of aqua brush strokes sweep across the horizon right now.

My bird cafe has had a steady stream of visitors. The goldfinches have almost cleaned out two feeders. The lone brown-headed cowbird has shown up and brought five friends with him. The faithful cardinals are flaunting their loveliness. Still think of them as gifts from Chief. Fatty the squirrel is dangling from one bird feeder raking seeds in his mouth as fast as he can. I clap my hands and he skedaddles away. I came in the house when the sun was beaming down hot on both the porch swings and took a nap. Unusual for me. When I woke up it was time to go and watch the pageant of sunset.

Mother Nature brushed pink and pale apricot layers of her watercolors on top of the blue aqua of the horizon and ushered the sun onto the pageant stage as twilight tiptoed across my neighborhood. Mother Nature dressed the sun in a sterling silver taffeta gown, embellished with diamond sequins and beads of emerald fireflies. As she stepped on the stage and prepared to turn off the day’s light, the sun blinded her audience and beamed brightly as she pushed through the crowd of colorful clouds.

Father Sky took her hand, walked the sun down the horizon as the day’s light dimmed, and the evening’s gloaming began. Father Sky kissed the sun good night and went to wake the moon and twinkling stars for their pageant of night beginning now on the inky black canvas of the nighttime sky. The day sleeps and the night wakes.

I love watching the sunsets. I need to stop being a night owl and get up early enough to be an early bird to watch the sunrise wake the earth each morning.

Read a quote today that makes me feel rich as Croesus. The quote from Michelle Kwan, reads, “If you have nothing in life but a good friend, you are rich.” Then I am indeed rich in my friendships and I appreciate every one of you. The emotional support we receive from good friends gives a richness to our lives. And friends accept us for what we are, warts and all, and never judge us. Got one friend or many friends, tell them you love them and appreciate them today.

One of my friends sent this quote today. I love it and have thought about its beauty today. Lois Lowry writes, “Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps the singing bird will come.”

I had a young preacher tell me once I had closed my heart to love and needed to open it to let another love come in. We can’t close off our hearts and live afraid of being hurt by love. We have to open our hearts to allow joy and love to come into our life. Life is too short to close ourselves off and not experience the gifts of love.

Some of us experience traumatic events that close our hearts to love, close our hearts to God’s healing. Debiasing Mridha says, “The more you open your heart to others, the more your life becomes joyful.” If we look at the green tree as our life we realize that trees take time to grow and mature and bear fruit. But eventually the tree has branches strong enough for birds to perch and gift us with songs.

I love this quote from Julia Roberts in Steel Magnolias — “I’d rather have 30 minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special.” We have to open our hearts and let those songbirds of God’s love come in to enjoy all of life’s wonderful moments. We should never give up hope. If our hearts are open to God’s love our green tree will receive all of life and nature’s gifts. Be brave! Don’t be afraid to open your heart to God and all his blessings.

“Keep your head up, your heart open, stay on a positive path, and the right people will come along and join you on it.” — Mandy Hale