Beautiful day, epitome of a sultry summer day, over flowing with the heat and humidity of a Tennessee Williams’ play. The luscious rain is beginning to pour down! Wahoo! The bamboos are doing their rain ballet. I think my lawn is in survival mode now. It looks some greener and it got two good showers today. Might get another tonight. I hope so. God has been good to us today sending the healing rain to the parched earth.

I just spent 30 minutes on the porch looking for my glasses. Thought I had left them in the swing and even thought Bootsie, the neighborhood dog, had eaten them for supper. Y’all, they were on my face the whole time! Shady Oaks is getting closer every day. Made me remember a cartoon I saw on Facebook. Two sisters on their cell phones talking and one sister says, “I’ve lost my phone.” Other sister says, “Want me to call you so you can find it?” Ain’t getting older marvelous! I love it. My niece said I should forget the blog and write a novel about my adventures and escapades. I would be in Shady Oaks or jail after that! And her mother and my dearest friend would be right there with me.

It’s 76 degrees now on the porch after supper and I can feel the cooling breeze floating on the magical air of dusk. The breeze is pinging out a soft lullaby on the wind chimes. The sky is beautiful, the clouds in shades of grey and purple and aqua, gathering and joining hands getting ready for the sun set. Perfect porch perching weather tor watching the pageant. I feel God’s presence here in the swing.

Mother Nature used a wondrous watercolor palette tonight painting her sunset. She blazed a reddish watermelon wildfire, burning bright but short lived. Then she washed the sky in wondrous watercolors of mauves and pale bluish purples. Never seen these colors stretched across the skyline before, looking like a clothes line pinned with luxurious satin sheets. And next time I glanced at the sunset, the sky was overcast in vanilla white with sporadic rain clouds. Mother Nature painted swiftly tonight and the sun and Father Sky had to rush down the horizon to turn out the day’s light. The waxing gibbous moon and the twinkling stars are snug in their cloud covers lulled to sleep by the patter of rain falling. The lightning bugs, the stars of twilight, are tucking their damp wings close, snug under their beds of brown oak and magnolia leaves. The day has ended and the night begun.

Watched the rain out the windows this afternoon and flipped through a quote book. Came to a favorite quote, even had turned down a small tip of the page to mark this. The quote reads, “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can as long as you ever can,” John Wesley.

In the first grade we sat on the edges of our desks and recited the ABCs. I was just thinking how this quote could change the world if we read it to our children everyday. If they sat on the edge of their desks and recited this or read it each day before school. Good is so easy to do. Doesn’t even cost anything. Just a genuine smile can go a long way to light someone’s darkness.

Luke 6:35 reads, “But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil.” We can be a light in the darkness for others by loving our neighbors, treating them as we would like to be treated, and by being kind, respectful, and compassionate.

We need to show God’s grace to others by our words and actions. We need to encourage those who are discouraged. We need to bring light back to those who are suffering and give them the hope of God’s grace. We need to pray for the people in our lives, to pray for the world, and to pray for our leaders.

“Prayer is the song of the heart. It reaches the ear of God even if it is mingled with the cry and tumult of a thousand men.” — Kahlil Gibran