Sat on the porch this morning with Kat and Penelope, watching the birds’ antics and listening the raindrops’ quiet symphonies. My yard had dozens of cardinals and finches, flittering on the feeders, enjoying the light misty rain. The sky was beautifully overcast in shades of gray and beige. I love these cool mornings, hints of the coming fall with its cardigan weather. I always think of the trees dressing in colorful sweaters when Mother Nature begins painting their leaves. Two little dogwood trees across the street are getting their sweaters knitted now.

Today was a good day for napping and a good day for reading but I did neither. I watched college football games and watched the original Jaws movie. I’m going to New Smyrna Beach the first of October and the ocean will probably only see my toes in her waters. Was reading about New Smyrna and research says New Smyrna is the most dangerous beach in America, “noted not only for being a top hurricane zone, thus causing a particularly strong riptide, but is actually the top shark attack spot in the whole country.” I visited New Smyrna Beach years ago with my grandchildren when they were young, on our way home from Disney World, and we had a wonderful time. It’s a beautiful beach and I’m looking forward to collecting shells and shark teeth in my shell collecting bag and making a memory jar.

Ever time I’ve turned on my Echo Dot to play 70’s music this afternoon I’ve heard Jim Croce’s song, Time in a Bottle. I love that song and alway stop and listen when I hear it. Then I try to think about what I would save in my bottle. “But there never seems to be enough time to do the things you want to do” when our families are young. We age, our children grow up, and we realize how fleeting our time on earth really is. If we could save time like we save money we might somehow have enough time for all the things in life we want to experience and accomplish. Course with today’s economy we can’t save money and it’s hard to find quality time in the fast spinning of our world’s modern life.

“If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I’d like to do
Is to save every day till eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you…”

Croce wrote the song inspired by learning he was going to be a father. Sad that he died in a plane crash before the song became a number one hit on Billboard’s Top 100 Chart. His wife Ingrid Croce is quoted as saying “if there isn’t enough time, then you better damn spend it the way you want to spend it, because if you don’t, you’re wasting it!”

We need to make the most of the limited time we have. Chief always said life was full of truth and beauty. Those of us fortunate to have found a true love know it doesn’t last forever and we feel at their death we never had “enough time” with them. We listeners are already dreaming of our magical bottle holding precious moments in our lives. I’d fill my bottle with all three of my children, young and innocent, full of life, happily seated around the dinner table with Chief and me, such glorious days in my memories.

In Job 38:37 the clouds are called “the bottles of heaven.” I wonder if God stores up our lives in the bottles of heaven, pouring them out on judgement day, letting us see how quickly our life has passed, counting how many time we delighted him, how many times we disappointed him. God only asks that we love him. He shows us daily that he loves us as we experience the wonders of the world he created. Let’s make time each morning to thank God for the breath of another day.

“Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend.— Theophrastus