So pretty outside this morning, blue sky dotted with Clorox white clouds, yellow sunshine filtering through the crowns of the old oaks and magnolias. A gentle breeze is playing a symphony on the wind chimes, keeping the porch pleasant. The faithful cardinals are enjoying the day, flittering around the bird baths and singing happily. I was eating my breakfast on the porch perched in the swing, when Penelope started growling and sniffing and wanting to get out of her playpen to get after something on the porch. I couldn’t see anything but wondered if Balthazar, the big king snake, was sleeping under the large wooden box I use for a table.

Decided to come inside and let Kat run him off. I couldn’t see anything and the leaf blower didn’t run anything out from under the box but critters just seem to follow me around. I bet Balthazar is snoring under that box so I’m in the house till he wakes and slithers off. Stayed in the house an hour and went back out on the porch. Penelope almost jumped out of the playpen. I caught her mid air. So I leashed her and let her snort around all she wanted to. Never saw anything but she was on high alert. The box is an old tv cabinet and a cat bed fits inside it perfectly. Kat doesn’t sleep there yet so something must have taken a nap in the cat bed last night.

Love this paragraph by Terry Tempest Williams. “I pray to the birds because I believe they will carry the messages of my heart upward. I pray to them because I believe in their existence, the way their songs begin and end each day — the invocations and benedictions of Earth. I pray to the birds because they remind me of what I love rather than what I fear. And at the end of my prayers, they teach me how to listen.” I love this. I’ve read it so much the page is worn.

As I sit in the twilight and copy these words, darkness is closing in on the twilight’s softness and my yard is full of pairs of cardinals. Their happiness is reflected in their flittering around the feeders, getting their last few seeds before they head to their cozy secret places to bed down for the night. I can hear their quiet prayers in their end of the day’s soft songs. God sends cardinals as symbols of hope when our hearts are breaking. Cardinals are said to appear when angels are near. We experience troubles in our lives and seeing a cardinal can be a positive sign that things are going to get better. I watch these cardinals every night, marveling at their beautiful plumage. The juveniles are getting their adult feathers now and are so pretty in their dark grays and warm browns and reds, their beaks turning more orange as they mature. God and Mother Nature’s watercolors have made the cardinals beauteous sights for the eyes.

I picked up a small grocery order tonight at Walmart. As I entered the Walmart parking lot a young family was begging for help, sitting in the grass holding up a poster. I didn’t read it. Their daughter was a beautiful child, dark hair and dark expressive eyes, dressed in a deep burgundy shirt. I drove by I and thought of that little girl as a juvenile cardinal depending on her parents to feed her before the sun goes down. When I left with my groceries, I folded a few bills of money and handed them out the window to the mother as I drove by. Something about that little family moved me and I cried all the way home, touched by their radiant smiles, grateful and thankful that all the children in my family are well and loved and fed and have roofs over their heads. I’m not cynical enough yet to think that little Hispanic family didn’t need that money. Maybe that little girl will be a catalyst one day and change the world. I couldn’t help but think “there but for the grace of God go I.” I am so thankful for all my and my brothers’ families blessings and I thank God for them in my prayers each night.

Ephesians 2:10 reads, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” God just wants us to love him and do good works in his name. Jesus says: “It is more blessed to give than receive.” Jesus taught us how to treat others by his examples of being kind and compassionate to those who society treated as outcasts. It’s hard to put others first because we’re always looking out for ourselves. God wants us to put others first and not worry about ourselves. He wants us to believe in his faithfulness, believing he will take care of us.

1 Peter 4:10 reads, “Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” Everything we have is given to us by God’s grace and we need to use God’s gifts to serve others, showing them God’s grace in action through our faith. Serving others is the definition of Christian love.

“We are not put on this earth for ourselves, but are placed here for each other. If you are there always for others, then in time of need, someone will be there for you.” ― Jeff Warner