Today just looks like a page from a children’s picture book illustrating spring — bright blue sky, fluffy white clouds, clear yellow sunshine warming the earth. For those of us on the street who haven’t mowed our yards yet, the clover and dandelion blooms and the beautiful miniature wild flowers are having tea parties with the bumblebees. The bumblebees are so happy they are humming all over the yard.

I’ve been working today on opening my windows in my ancestral home. Takes a while to get some of the older ones open but its so pleasant at night hearing the mockingbirds and whippoorwills sing and the occasional hoot owl hoots. The rustles of the bamboo leaves add a softness to the night symphony. I love sleeping with the windows open.

I got my seed order in the mail today. Couldn’t help but tear up as I opened the package as I sat down in the swing. Chief would always be so excited about his seed orders and we’d sit together on the porch in Alex City in our rocking chairs and he’d show me the prettily illustrated little packages of vegetable seeds. And there was always a pack or two of flowers seeds as a surprise for me. There are several large sunflowers growing around my old oak tree. I know he drops seeds for me when he’s visiting as a cardinal. I have random sunflowers sprouting all around my yard.

I’ve been watching this large group of clouds merge together and for a few minutes they looked just like the faces of Mount Rushmore. I visited the monument when I was in college and was amazed at the presidents’ faces. It took 14 yeas to dynamite and carve the heads. The clouds now are melding close together and look like a big cotton boll. The presidents’ heads were short lived.

Just saw a lone crane flying across the sky, high and calling out for its mate. Must be sad to be flying so high and all alone as night falls across the land.

The sun has started a pale orange forest fire burning across the horizon to begin sunset and the flames are burning beneath Mother Nature’s watercolor brush strokes of aqua and pale pink. The fluffy clouds, now growing purple with rain, are kissed on the edges with raspberry pink brush strokes, melting into the blueberry clouds like Neapolitan ice cream on a hot summer day.

The sun steps on stage dressed in a short chic cocktail dress of burnt orange taffeta. Father Sky is handsome in a black tuxedo. As they walk down the pageant stage of sunset the forest fire on the horizon is extinguished and the day’s light dims. As twilight streaks across the yard, Father Sky notices the moon, almost full of himself, has waked early and is hanging high in the dark blue evening sky waiting on the twinkling stars to rub sleep from their eyes and join him on the night’s stage. The day’s light has gone out and the lights of night are turning on.

Been jotting down quotes all day on my scraps of paper. Used to get on to Chief for writing on scraps of paper and backs of envelopes and now I’m doing it. And sometimes I have to research the quote because I can’t read my own handwriting. These three quotes were my favorites today. “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud,” Maya Angelo. “To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people just exist,” Oscar Wilde. And “You can’t turn back the clock. But you can always wind it up again,” Bonnie Prudden.

“Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud,” that’s such a beautiful thought. Lots of people are walking around with heavy loads that they conceal and a smile or a phone call or a note in the mail can be the rainbow that’s gets them through another day. God wants us to connect to each other with kindness and be empathetic when others are hurting. Sometimes just letting someone know you care about them and are a praying for them can be the rainbow blessing they need to hear.

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people just exist.” Don’t be afraid to dance in the rain or walk barefoot in the grass. Life is to short to not live a little. Don’t be afraid to take chances. The world is a big wide wonder waiting to be experienced. We all go through the motions of life but we need to embrace the joys and challenges that life offers. Don’t just exist. God wants us to enjoy life. John 10:10 reads, “…I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance, to the full, till it overflows.” I love what Melody Beattie says, “Quit hanging on to the handrails… Let go. Surrender. Go for the ride of your life. Do it every day.”

“You can’t turn back the clock. But you can wind it up again.” This might be the easiest to ponder on. Life is full of many difficulties. We can’t change the past and we cannot always avoid the problems that come our way but we can wind the clock back up and start anew tomorrow. God gives up the promise of a new beginning each day.

“The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.” — Eleanor Roosevelt