Today is another glorious day, blue skies dressed in fluffy clouds colored in shades of white and cigar smoke grays, hot and humid like summer is supposed to be. Just makes the sweet ice tea in the Mason jar that much sweeter. Sat on the swing perch this morning and ate my breakfast bagel, drinking my coffee, watching the cardinals and purple finches frolicking around the bird feeders. There are storms near us so the porch is comfortable. I can hear the thunder and see the distant clouds gathering in their purple suits. The wind chimes are playing soft symphonies. As Robert Browning writes in Pippa’s Song “God’s in His heaven — all’s right with the world.”

Watched the sun sit still on the crest of the horizon this afternoon like a blinding white golf ball resting on the sky’s golf tee. The sun gathered its rays close, turned into a perfect ball of orange-red fire, and sat motionless while Mother Nature picked up her watercolor brushes and stroked beautiful honey gold and elderberry blue shades across the landscape’s skyline. As the sun blazed a trail down the horizon she took the hand of Father Sky and they invited the day’s gloaming to perform after their exit. The dusk lit the lightning bugs’ lanterns and the lightning bugs glittered in the twilight like the stars in the heavens. I love the summer nights, sitting on the porch as twilight rides the sun’s colorful coattail down the horizon, quietly introducing the darkness to the night’s world. The smiles of daylight turn into the calm sighs of night and the birds roost with their heads tucked contentedly into their wings. The weary rest and the sick pray for peace and restful sleep.

I think the summer nights ignite a luminous light inside the milky moon and the twinkling stars. The moon gazes at the sapphire canvas of the night sky, watching and waiting for the sunrise to wake the next day. But the twilight, that obscure time of day immediately following sunset, is mysterious in its shadowy quiet beauty. I love twilight, the evening’s gloaming, as the light changes from day to night. The magical mist of twilight hovers gently over the landscape as quietness descends and the days’ light fades away. Love this Stephanie Meyer quote, “I like the night. Without the dark, we’d never see the stars.” We all have to walk through the darkness to see the beauty and hope of life. Daniel 12:3 states, “And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.”

The older I get the more I realize how short life is. Life really is so very, very short and we’re not promised a tomorrow. We need to live a life of kindness and love, focusing on what’s truly important to us, and be grateful for every day God blesses us with. Life is so precious. “When we realize the shortness of life, we begin to see the importance of making every moment count,” Dillon Burroughs.

“Life is short. Live it to the fullest.” — John Grisham