Another beautiful day today but still a scorcher. I got up and headed outside to walk Penelope and realized I had both my shirt and my shorts on backwards! Not even going to try to figure out what that might mean. At this stage in my life it doesn’t really matter, I guess. I filled up the bird feeders and picked the squash. I sat on the porch mid-morning with oldest brother and we talked about songbirds and our gardens. He was having green beans and fried squash from his garden for supper. I’m having fried squash, too. I can’t wait till he brings me some corn. I love corn on the cob. Guess corn and colored butter beans are my favorite vegetables. If I cut back on the sunflowers and zinnias, I’d have room for some butter beans and corn in my garden. Might try that next year.

Even with a box fan blowing on me, I could not sit in the porch swing and ponder today. I guess I really am getting old if the heat is running me in the house to my reading chair in my bedroom. Guess I’m pondering from the reading chair now. I hope Shady Oaks has air conditioning and assistance with getting dressed. Ha ha!

I had a handsome towhee visit my yard again today. They are beautiful birds. He always comes late afternoon and never brings any others. He digs and shovels around the ground under the bird feeders and perches on the bird baths but never sits on a feeder. Can’t understand how he can be an oversized sparrow but that’s what the bird guides say. They are intriguing little creatures with their dark black and warm reddish-brown plumage. A flock of towhees is called a tea pot. I love that!

Penelope and I went outside around 7 pm for a walk to watch the sunset and Mother Nature really put on a show for us. She blazed a watercolor wildfire all the way down the street’s horizon with brush strokes of orange and red and yellow, setting the tree’s silhouettes on fire with their reflections of the vibrant flames of color. As we watched the watercolors darken and the rendered fire burn out, Mother Nature changed her palette’s watercolors and painted the rows of clouds in cotton candy colors of orchid and lilac, fuchsia and lavender, bubble gum and amethyst. She touched the spaces between the clouds with an aqua wash, perfectly beautiful. I cannot look at the sunset and not feel the presence of God.

Been reading quotes today looking for new ones for inspiration. I just hope I can later read my scribbles. I kept thinking about this quote. “Life isn’t meant to be easy, it’s meant to be lived. Sometimes happy, other times rough… But every up and down you learn lessons that make you strong.” If we don’t have times of struggle in our lives we won’t have strength for the trials and tribulations that are part of living life. Even when we struggle God is with us.

Life is full of obstacles and road blocks but once we learn how to go around these stumbling blocks we realize there are good things ahead for us. The times we feel like God is breaking us down he’s really building us up. We need to set goals and work towards them. Arthur Ashe says it best. “Start where you are, use what you have, and do what you can.” That’s good advice. I think that’s what God asks of us, too.

Life is wondrous but we have to have to courage to live, to not let our fears of not winning the race hold us back. God wants us to enjoy being alive. Start today where you are and just vow to do your best. Be determined to live and let God help push you in the right direction. We all have gifts from God and we need to use our talents for God’s glory. We all need to do what we can to make the world a kinder more compassionate place.

God wants us to enjoy being alive. He wants us to live with joy. Jesus says in John 10:10, “…I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.” When we accept Jesus as our savior we receive abundant life, joyful and eternal.

Life is a precious gift and should be treasured every day.

“Life itself is a privilege, but to live life to the fullest — well, that is a choice.” — Andy Andrews