Today is my daughter Rosalyn’s 40th birthday. She’s celebrating in heaven with Chief and if their view of the sky is half as pretty as what I can see, she’s having a glorious celebration. If she was here with me we’d be on a birthday shopping spree that would have to include a new purse and some new shoes. She loved a purse as a toddler, dragging them around full of all her bookie. I’ve got the cutest photo of her, underwear on backwards, no shirt, standing in gray suede high heels, gigantic mother-in-law purse clutched in her hands. I’d use the photo in this blog but she’d lightning bolt me from heaven.

Rosie was killed in a car wreck at age 17. As she drove out of the driveway, the last words she heard from me were “Bye, I love you!” And the last words I heard from her were “Bye, Love you the mostest!” I am so thankful for that memory. It sustains me when the knife of grief splits open my heart. “Child loss is not an event, it’s a journey of survival,” Unknown. I don’t want any one to ever have to experience this nightmare of a journey. I pray every night for parents who have buried their children.

Been watching this lone yellow sulphur butterfly dancing all around the bird feeders and zinnias. Didn’t know yellow sulphur butterflies flew so high. Did a little research and they don’t usually fly higher than nine feet. This one was still going at about 60 feet. I watched is fly over the huge fir tree across the street. Maybe it was Rosie going back to heaven after coming down to tell me she was having a happy birthday. Never let an opportunity to tell someone you love them escape you. Life is so short you might not ever get another chance.

It’s so pleasant this morning with a nice cool breeze strong enough to rustle the zinnia blossoms and ping the wind chimes. The day is beautiful, the sky full of little fluffy clouds, at times resembling fish in a school, then a line of turtles slowly treading across the sky, later a herd of sheep heading home to their farm. Earlier this morning the sky was filled with mackerel scale clouds and I watched some of them morph into feathers. I love cloud watching. I believe the male cardinals are getting more crimson each day. They are almost fluorescent and I love their soft fawn colored mates so pretty in their reddish orange feathered hats with matching orange lipsticked beaks.

“One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today,” Dale Carnegie. It’s really amazing how many of us are searching for what is right at our feet. The grass might seem greener on the other side but the grass is always green on God’s side. No matter how far we walk away, we’ll always find God welcoming us home to his greener pastures.

“A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of,” Luke 6:45. It’s hard to be a Christian with all the temptations of the modern world. We look out over our worlds and see and think that others’ grass seems greener and we want to cross the line, too. Our faith is like the grass, we have to water it, fertilize it, mow it, and weed it to keep it green. When we spend time with God in Bible reading and prayer we attach ourselves to God and become rooted in faith. We have to nurture our spiritual garden and poison the weeds with the love of God. 2 Peter 3:18 reads, “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…”

When we listen to God, letting his spirit work in us, and choose to live a Christian life, God will help us grow our spiritual garden and it will always be green.

“In God’s garden of grace, even a broken tree can bear fruit.” – Rick Warren