Such a pretty day that God has given us today. I ate my breakfast bagel and fruit sitting in the swing watching the sky go from a blue sky day to a thunderstorm sky day. No rain fell but the sky was glorious as she changed her colors all morning. Mother Nature dialed up the heat later but I enjoyed perching in the swing, with a box fan for a breeze, watching the birds frolicking around in the yard till mid-afternoon. Came outside later to get my tea glass and my glasses fogged up.

My older neighborhood friend and I were sitting on the porch this morning when a hawk swept down into the yard and snatched up a dove. The hawk sat still for a moment on the ground, the dove clutched tightly in its talons, looked right into my eyes with a regal stare, then flew off. Maybe he was thanking me for all the fat little birds he’s snatched off my feeders. I’ve been feeding him songbirds for breakfast and supper all summer, all of them fat and full of sunflower seeds.

I’ve had so many birds in my yard the last two days. They clean out their favorite feeders every day. The big red-bellied woodpecker and two little downy woodpeckers joined the party on the suet baskets today. Guess I should let all the feeders run out of seeds and suet but I fill each one up as fast as it empties. These songbirds bring me so much happiness and joy. I feel Chief’s presence with every bright red male cardinal that visits. When Rosie died we put a bird feeder and a bird bath at the cemetery. My friend Pat gave us an iron bench for the cemetery so I could sit and enjoy the birds. Someone stole it years later. So sad!

As I sat in the swing this morning I would look up at the dark blue sky and the crisp white clouds and hear Louis Armstrong singing his signature song, What a Wonderful World. I love the second stanza — “I see skies of blue and clouds of white, the bright blessed day, the dark sacred night, and I think to myself what a wonderful world.” I came in the house to do some quote searching and when I turned on my music, and I’m not kidding, Barry Manilow was singing this song as a duet with Louis Armstrong. And my world is wonderful today!

I went back out to the porch swing at dusk to watch the sun setting. The sky and clouds were gorgeous in the colors of violacious grape clusters, kissed with twilight’s dew, ripening on the vines in a wine country vineyard, the sunset soaking up their colors. Mother Nature copied their colors, too, her watercolors touching the clouds in wondrous washes of blues and purples and raspberry tints, brushing her hot pink paints on the tip tops of the dark purple rain clouds. It was a picture, as Chief used to say. Beautiful but so quickly fading.

While I was watching the sunset, the humming birds put together their screams, beak slaps, and jet engine wing sounds to create a twilight bird symphony. They are so territorial, room for everyone on the feeders, but they’re too busy guarding the feeders to get a good drink of nectar. They could teach a Biblical lesson on being stingy.

I read a quote this afternoon, “A night can never defeat the sunrise,” by Sumit Sharma. Made me think of how God’s Holy Spirit lights the darkness of the world. We have God’s promise of the sun rising each morning, the promise of a new day. We can choose to follow God’s teachings each day or chart a course of our own making. God will show us the correct path, nudging us in the right direction through our prayers and thanksgiving.

“There was never a night or a problem that could defeat sunrise or hope,” says Bern Williams. You can find hope even in the darkest of nights. There is always hope and sunshine in the sunrise of another day. God is always there, a bright light in the toughest of times. He promises he will never leave our side. He will carry our burdens, hold our hands and hold our hearts, and sweep the rubble from our path. He gives us hope to carry on.

Life is meaningless without hope. Losing hope is worse than losing the battle. If you lose one battle, you can win another, but if you lose hope, you lose everything. God is our source of hope. Hope helps us through the hard times. There is always a bright side no matter how dark it seems. The nights may be dark and long but eventually the sun rises and the darkness is pushed down. Let God be the silver lining in the clouds of your life.

“Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul and sings the tune without the words and never stops at all.” – Emily Dickinson