Today was a pretty day, spring like in temperature and bird song symphonies. Pretty is defined as attractive in a delicate way without being truly beautiful or handsome. Well, I take pretty back and describe today as beautiful, a word I use probably in every other sentence but sometimes it’s just the right choice. Every night I look up synonyms for the word beautiful but still end up typing the word beautiful.

Father Sky picked up his blue pastels this morning, lit his Cuban cigar, and sketched a dark cerulean ocean on his sky canvas. I sat on the porch most of the day enjoying the warm sun and the flocks of cardinals flittering around the bird feeders. The squirrels were playing tag around the oak tree trunk, chattering and fussing as they scampered around. The sky was almost cloud free, just a few wisps of line clouds floating here and there.

The sun was hot mid-afternoon so I went from one swing to the other, playing musical swings, too hot in one swing, too cool in the other. Late afternoon when Father Sky drew some heavy white clouds along the horizon, I knew Mother Nature would shade them in wondrous colors at sunset. After an early supper I went back out to watch Mother Nature paint the sunset on the horizon, knowing she would brush her watercolors magnificently across the sky and the lingering clouds. As the sun, beaming brightly in her silver gown, danced across the clouds and prepared to walk down her sunset stage, a beautiful watercolor wash of the palest pink began coloring the sky.

Mother Nature painted the skyline with pink lemonade blushing pink the horizon around my street and house. Mother Nature hasn’t had any clouds to paint the last few days and she’s just been subdued but magnificent in the pale hues she’s chosen lately for her palette. The pale yellows, golds and pinks, make me think of homemade jelly — the pale gold of apple jelly and the pale pink of wild cherry jelly. Lots of memories making homemade jelly with Chief bragging on the taste of a little smidgeon I’d drop on a saucer for him to eat. As the darkness waked, Mother Nature painted the skyline a beautiful golden peach which burned slowly into an apricot fire that lingered till the sun turned off the day’s light. The day is now dark as I walk in the house. I see so much joy in the wonder of God’s gift of sunset. Psalm 65:8 reads, “The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders; where morning dawns, where evening fades, you call forth songs of joy.”

A quote I love, sent to me from one of my friends. “Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life. The evening beam that smiles the clouds away, and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray,” Lord Byron. Ever had a storm in your life and you’re drowning in hopelessness when out of the blue a glorious rainbow emerges? I have a friend who has dragged many rainbows onto my horizon. I think I’ve hung a few rainbows in the cloudy skies for her, too. We all weather storms in our lives but if we have hope and faith that the storm will pass we can inspire others to have hope, too. Just like God lights our paths, we can inspire others with the light of our faith when their worlds turn dark. Reach out to others in their darkness and offer a hand of assurance, pulling those who need hope back into the light of God’s love.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to smile life’s clouds away. We read in Proverbs “a glad heart makes a cheerful face.” Sitting here thinking of the smiles I know that could melt the clouds. I think my nephew and my grandson could melt a few clouds away and in fact, have done that. Their smiles in overcoming the storms of life threatening illnesses have illuminated them. Nate and Alexander’s smiles uplift me and let me know there is always the hope of sunny days ahead. We just have to stay positive, trusting in God’s grace during the clouds and storms. There is always sunshine after the darkest nights. “While there’s life, there’s hope,” Marcus Tullius Cicero.

You know, joy comes from the simple things in life and nature. God gives us a new day and we decide how to use it. When tomorrow comes, this day is gone and when we look back at yesterday, I hope we see we have done some good. I hope we’ve put some happiness in the world and put a smile on someone’s face. I love Desmond TuTu’s quote, “Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.” The world is not without heartache and sorrow but these storms can be weathered. The hopes and joys we’ve known help us believe that hope and joy can be experienced again.

“Once you choose hope, anything’s possible.” — Christopher Reeve