Walking Penelope in the morning heat. The sky is azure blue, almost purple where the horizon holds it up. A single thin wispy cotton boll cloud is swimming quickly across the blue heavens. A slight wind is softly playing my wind chime pipes, singing of places it has traveled from. I love the harmony of my new organ wind chimes, the tintinnabulations are such pleasant tones. I love to sit in the swing and make up lyrics to the notes of the wind chimes. Didn’t sit out long before the heat sent me to my reading chair.

I said a quick prayer this morning for all the workers who by their occupation are working outside in this oppressive heat. Mother Nature needs to dial back her thermostat. I grew up without air conditioning and I can’t remember being this hot. I went back outside around 7 pm to wash out the birdbaths, to fill the bird feeders, and to water the flowers and vegetables. The sweat dripped off my brow and soaked my t-shirt. The glorious sunshine gives life and light, brings joy and goodness to our days on its journey across the blue heavens, so I shouldn’t complain when she has a hot flash. Ecclesiastes 11:7 says it best, “Sunshine is sweet; it is good to see the light of day.” I’m grateful for another day on this spinning planet.

Whittled the afternoon away doing absolutely nothing, something I’m getting to be an expert at. Meant to get back to editing one of my son’s novels and riding a few miles on my exercise bike but I actually took a nap, something I never do. Went to sleep in my chair so I lay myself down on the bed and woke up an hour later.

Enjoying the porch swing as the day has cooled somewhat. I noticed Mr. Waxing Crescent Moon was an early riser tonight. I never see the moon in the daytime that I don’t remember that sentence from a nursery rhyme, “I see the moon and the moon sees me.” The moon has pinned himself high on the blue sky canvas, not waiting for Father Sky to summons him. The moon’s twinkling diamonds buddies aren’t awake yet. Father Sky will throw handfuls of them into the night’s darkness soon. The landscape’s ground stars, the glowing little lightning bugs, were blinking in time with the loudly singing cicadas.

Psalm 8:3-4 states, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” We are but a spec in the vastness of God’s heavens, made in his image, and cared for by our creator. I look at the night sky designed with a luminous moon and twinkling stars and I’m reminded of God’s power and his artistry.

Psalm 63:6–8 reads, “On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. I cling to you; your right hand upholds me.” I used to think of God mostly at bedtime when I said my prayers but now as I’ve immersed myself in his natural world I find myself spontaneously thanking him when the wondrous blessings of his hands cross my path — the colorful butterflies, the songbirds’ symphonies, the deep purples of the cooling thunderstorm clouds, the beautiful colors of sunset, the smiles and laughter of my grandchildren… “You alone are the Lord. You made the skies and the heavens and all the stars. You made the earth and the seas and everything in them. You preserve them all, and the angels of heaven worship you,” Nehemiah 9:6.

Look to the sky and you’ll be moved to worship God. He is the master of all creation. Psalm 148:1 reads, “Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens! Praise him from the skies!”

“I will love the light for it shows me the way. Yet I will endure the darkness because it shows me the stars.” — Og Mandino