A chilly start to the day today. But oh…that deep blue gorgeous sky. Not a cloud or turkey buzzard to mar the heavens. Officially, fall will arrive September 22 but I could feel fall creeping up this morning in the cooler temperature. I actually thought about putting on a sweater. Penelope dragged me all over the neighborhood on our walk. She’s really frisky when the mornings are cool. One day I’m going to plaster my face on that broken sidewalk next door. Been like that since I was a child but it’s worse now. My children and I have wrecked our bikes there many times. Going to ask my new city council representative if the city can repair the sidewalk.

Had to take Kat to vet brother’s clinic this morning to get her rabies shot. Borrowed a cat crate from the clinic to carry her out there. Youngest son died laughing when he saw it. “Ain’t no way she’s going to fit in that little cage!” I told him I was going to make her fit. Ten treats and a salmon stick later we finally pushed her butt in and zipped her up. She “yeowed” all the way to his office, she’s never learned to say “meow.” I could hardly carry her. Figured she weighed 20 pounds but she only weighed 11. After the shot she just walked back in the cage! I could not believe that after we struggled so to kindly put her in it. The vet attendant laughed and said that happened all the time, people struggle to get their cats in the carriers at home and in the office they just walk in.

After we’d been home a while, Kat brought me the biggest chipmunk I’ve ever seen and dropped it at my feet, a thank you present for the rabies shot. She didn’t eat it, just murdered it and gifted it to me. Penelope really wanted her turn with it but I threw it off in the bamboo forest. Chipmunks are beautiful little creatures, handsome in their reddish brown fur and little bushy tails. I was sorry she killed it.

I’ve been watching the mourning and Eurasian doves the past few days. They make me laugh as they waddle around on their pink high heels, bobbing their heads with each step. One of them I think is mentally challenged. He sits on the sidewalk across the street and once all his friends fly across he walks across the street, up the curb, and bobs over to the feeders. Yesterday morning he decided to take a bath. Took him three tries to fly up on the rim of the birdbath before he walked in and bathed, forgetting to take his pink shoes off. He drank water from the solar fountain stream, then took a long bath, ducking his head, flittering his wings and splashing the water out. Then when he left the birdbath he flew too low and ran into one of the bird feeder poles. He’s really comical. Amuses me every day.

Father Sky sketched no clouds tonight for Mother Nature to watercolor for the sunset pageant backdrop so she brushed the horizon in watercolors of pale pink champagne, warm and beautiful as the silver sun rolled down to bed. The day’s demise is quiet as the moon and stars begin to wake the night. I love to sit in the swing as the twilight invites the darkness in.

“You’ll never find a rainbow if you’re looking down.” — Charlie Chaplin

Today’s quote in my everyday quote book reads, “Can’t have a rainbow without a little bit of rain,” Unknown. Mother Nature needs rain to paint a glorious rainbow across the heavens and she needs clouds for a magnificent rendering of the sunset. The rainbows are signs that God keeps his promises. The rainbow represents God’s mercy and his faithfulness, his commitment to protect us by the covenant he made with Noah after the flood.

Scripture in Genesis states “God said, ‘This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind.’”

Rain is the most crucial component of creating a rainbow, the raindrops acting as prisms. Our faith is the most important principle of being a Christian. We have to believe in God and trust he knows our path through life. We will all face trials and tribulations and storms of darkness through our lives but through faith and prayer, God will send his holy light and his rainbows. God tests our faith and we grow in faith as we struggle. “If you want to enjoy the rainbow, be prepared to endure the storm,” Warren Wendel Wiersbe. We’d never appreciate the rainbows in life if they didn’t come with hardships and difficulties reminding us that God is good and faithful. We appreciate the sunny days in life so much more after we’ve been through the storms.

“It’s when you follow the rain clouds that you find out where the rainbows are hiding.” — Richelle E. Goodrich