I have become so enamored with the sky and the clouds. I sat in the swing and watched the dark blue sky all day. Hard to think I never gave the sky and clouds a thought but sitting in a swing and watching them daily, I’ve begun to marvel at how beautiful they are. Even the colors of the luminous clouds are breathtaking as you watch them be tinted with Mother Nature’s watercolors. The sky and the sun’s life giving light and warmth are something to be thankful for. As one of my blogging friends said, “Put your every day blessings in your grateful cup.” Mine is overflowing today!

Ate my breakfast perched in the swing this morning, watching Father Sky draw beautiful clouds and hang them high on his blue sky canvas. I think he was giving art lessons, sketching all kinds of clouds, some of them round and fluffy, kissed pristine white on their crowns by the sun, brushed gray on their bellies by Mother Nature. Others were little cotton bolls, rolling across the sky, bumping into his line cloud drawings. As he kept teaching his art class, the clouds changed shapes, slowly morphing into different characters as they floated slowly across the sky. With all the clouds to be colored, I was anticipating a wondrous sunset and Mother Nature didn’t disappoint me.

When sunset came, Mother Nature, picked up her watercolor palette, filled it with pastel colors of yellow and orange and pink and turquoise and blue and white. She layered her paints in broad strokes, blurred where the edges touched. Father Sky took his finger, blended his high clouds, shaded pale blue and pale pink, into the muscadine gold of the setting sun. Perfectly beautiful! Mother Nature helped the sun bed down her bright rays and Father Sky bent down to kiss her goodnight. The moon has successfully hidden from me. Tonight he and his starry friends are no where to be seen, hiding in their cloud covers, not ready to wake up and take their places in the night sky. I know the sun is sad without her nightlights twinkling in the sky. I’ll check on them later.

Mother Nature paints with such vibrant colors. I love her fall shades best. I call them earth colors, rich and vibrant, like expensive jewels. She layers her jewels of color across the horizon’s sunset like an expensive bracelet resting on a white cotton square, wrapped in a box from Tiffany’s. She strokes her brushes across the trees, too, and dresses them in quintessential quilts of countless colors. I appreciate her and her paint brushes.

I watched an interview with Dolly Parton last night and she said something that resonated with me. “If you have dreams you better put wings on them.” She’s right. If we wait around for the dreams to come to us we’ve got a long wait. Bible scripture says, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights.” I think God wants us to pursue dreams that use talents he’s blessed us with. He’s given us everything we need. Our dreams change as we grow older but we don’t need to stagnate our life by settling on something that’s not our dream.

Our values in life and our faith in God help lead to greater success. We all have great potential. God has equipped us with everything we need to accomplish our dreams. Life is a big adventure. We have to be brave and not worry what other people think. We miss out on life’s blessings if we refuse to follow our dreams. Fear of failure holds us back but we all make mistakes. Reach for God’s hand, get up, and keep pursuing your dreams. God can make our dreams a reality. Make a plan, cross the finish line, make your dreams come true. We are more likely to regret what we didn’t do than what we did.

We read in 1 Peter, “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.” Some of us are probably living the life of our dreams but haven’t realized it yet. With God’s help you can turn your dream into a reality. I think Mark Twain said it best, “Don’t dream your life, but live your dream.”

“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” — Walt Disney