I think Mother Nature got distracted today. We had sunshowers and thunder showers and sometimes while it rained in my front yard, it didn’t rain in my backyard. The rain cooled things off and I enjoyed some porch pondering till the mosquitoes tried to carry off my legs. Those little critters have grown some vampire teeth this summer. I think I’m allergic to them now. Got some bad bites on my left leg. Now, tonight something bit my other leg while I was perched in the swing, making the same big welts. Going to invest in some Off.

My lawn mowing crew came today, been three weeks, always seems to rain on my mowing day. I had planted a short row of zinnias in front of my porch bannisters on one side, just started blooming this week. After the mowers left I went outside to sit in the swing and couldn’t figure out what was different about my view. Then I realized they had cut the whole row of zinnias down with their weed eaters. I had placed bricks around them and they had survived the last few weed eater visits.

I’ll admit they were covered in weeds but they were blooming just like the zinnias in the tomato frames. Thank goodness I had tomato cages around the volunteer zinnias in the flower garden space. They survived the mowing and weed eating. Maybe the other zinnias will come back. I’m going to have a fall garden and plant zinnias and sunflowers with some cooler weather vegetables. Didn’t get my flowerbed plowed this spring. Hope oldest brother will have time to plow it for the fall. Chief always had such pretty fall gardens.

“The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until the full day,” Proverbs 4:18. I love this verse and wish I was an early riser so I could enjoy watching the sunrise kiss the day awake with her warmth and watercolored rays. When I was driving to work in Alexander City, I’d leave at 4:30 AM and the sunrise always greeted me beautifully on the road. As our faith grows we become brighter and brighter like the sunrise and more like Jesus. John 3:18 states, “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.’”

The dusk is so pretty tonight. Psalm 104:19 reads, “He made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows when to set.” The sun has set and the blue sky is beautiful with random brush strokes of hot pink across the heavens. God closes each day with a glorious painting of the setting sun from the watercolor brushes of Mother Nature. I was thinking if each day ended with darkness without a sunset, our hope of tomorrow would be shattered. The magnificence of the sun setting shows us the end can be as beautiful as the beginning. As the silver sun rolled down the horizon tonight she was serenaded by the cicada’s tymbal orchestra. They were so loud I could understand research naming them the loudest insect.

The quote for today from my quote book is from Albert Einstein —“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.” We reflect on our past experiences, both negative and positive, learning from our mistakes of yesterdays. We all should live for today, being present in all of life’s moments, making the most of every day. I think hope is such a gift from God and our faith. We have optimism for the future which gives us hope for our tomorrows. Never stop questioning and learning about life, be curious and look at the world with a child like wonder.

“Life is only available in the here and now. The past is already gone, and the future is yet to come…there is only one moment for me to live…The present moment.” — Thich Nhat Hanh