This Sunday is an overcast day of a melted vanilla skyscape! The epitome of a Southern summer day, hot and humid, but without summer’s blue sky. Occasional rain drops softly kiss the landscape and occasional claps of thunder echo in the quietness. The sunset was by invitation only, painted in its beauty behind closed doors. I imagine Mother Nature chose her watercolors in shades of raspberry and turquoise.

As I sit on my church pew in the porch swing this morning, I’m pondering on the blessings the Lord has graciously given me, so many gifts that I’m grateful for this morning. I’m so blessed with family and friends. I found this prayer I wrote several years ago. With a little rewriting, I think it’s worth printing again.

Here’s my prayer —

Dear God, Father Sky, and Mother Nature,

Thank you for painting the sky azure blue with the luminous clouds that come alive on its canvas. Thank you for the cooling rains and the glorious rainbows that arch over the heavens after a thunderstorm.

Thank you for the sun’s warmth that coaxes my zinnias to bloom and warms my tomatoes on their vines. Thank you for the watercolors that so exquisitely color the sunsets at the twilight of day and the sunrises in the days’ awakenings.

Thank you for the song birds that put joy in my heart and remind me of the man I love deeply. Thank you for the humming birds’ little engines, the loud symphonies of the cicadas and the tree frogs, and for the soft and harsh winds that create poetic symphonies from the tintinnabulations of the wind chime pipes.

Thank you for my faithful and loving family, for my friends who call and drop in unexpectedly with cheerful conversations and cool whip cartons of leftovers for my supper.

Thank you for my dog, Penelope, and our cats, Kat and Churchill, and the love and comfort and occasional aggravation they give me.

Thank you for my love of laughter, my imagination, and my sense of humor.

Thank you for blessing me with a strong faith in God and a love and belief in the power of prayer.

Thank you for beauty and truth and hope and inspiration.

Thank you for giving me the gift of being able to express myself and the courage to bare my heart as I share my thoughts.

Thank you for keeping the world turning on its axis from my front porch swing’s sliver of heaven. — Amen.

“If your day is hemmed in with prayer, it is less likely to come unraveled.” — Cynthia Lewis