“Birds are nature’s poets, each song a verse of the earth’s melody.” That’s a beatiful quote from an unnamed source. I love the birds singing in the warmth of the day’s waking and I can see them as poets of glorious poems they set to songs entwined with the earth’s music. The birds greet each day with songs, their wondrous voices singing in praise of the day’s dawning. “Like the birds that sing at dawn, let us greet each new day with praise,” Unknown. I always thank God for another day on planet earth.

My yard is overflowing with birds today — doves, chickadees, titmouses, cardinals, purple finches, a pair of towhees, a wood thrush, blue jays, purple finches, wrens, and downy woodpeckers. Mr. Downy is usually immaculately dressed but today his pristine white vest is stained and dull. Looks like to he got dropped in a mud puddle. Maybe he tussled with a cat. His black and white checked tweed sport coat is clean and pressed, though. Guess he was too hungry for suet to go home and get a clean vest.

Waited all day for the rain that never came. Gave up and did a little watering. Came inside for supper and the rain decided to pour down briefly. I know my vegetables were happy with the short shower. When I went back outside after supper I noticed a cardinal’s head and wing feathers on the porch. Bad cat, Kat, eats cat food all day but occasionally has a bird for dessert. I swept the feathers off the porch and threw the head way off over the bannisters. Penelope would have loved that for her dessert.

I noticed all the wondrous colors on the bird feathers I picked up, the intricate brushed watercolors from God’s palette, blended together to make the cardinal’s wings so pretty. Feathers are so fragile it’s hard to imagine them lifting a bird off the ground to soar in the heavens. Pam Brown said, “A feather, though fragile, holds the strength to lift dreams skyward.” Dreams can be fragile like feathers. Our dreams require effort on our part. We need strength and courage and determination to pursue them, reaching for hope if we get discourage or have doubts.

God wants us to live our dreams but he also wants us to live a life of service to him obeying his commandments. He might not always answer our requests but he’s listening to our every word. Psalm 37:4-5 states, “Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires. Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you.” Scripture in Psalm 20:4 states, “May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.” Sometimes God says yes to a dream to teach us a lesson. Sometimes he says no and we have to trust in his wisdom. I think Garth Brooks says it best — “Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers. Remember when you’re talkin’ to the man upstairs that just because he doesn’t answer doesn’t mean he don’t care ‘cause some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers.”

Matthew 7:7 states, “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock and it will be opened to you.” I think God gives us our dreams and blesses us with the talents to achieve them. If we’re persistent in our prayers and trust in God’s mercy and guidance, the doors to our dreams will be opened.

“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.” — Langston Hughes