Another beautiful day the Lord has blessed us with. I ate breakfast on the porch and enjoyed the morning’s bloom into day. My yard is full of birds flitting around the feeders and drinking from the bird baths. The juvenile cardinals are colored in such wondrous plumage as they begin to mature, some so dark gray they are almost black. The female cardinals are getting their soft velvet brown feathers and orange beaks. The male purple finches are so handsome in their raspberry plumage. I love my songbirds!

Been sitting in my purple metal yard chair watching the sunset this evening. I’m watching the sunset in my mind. Mother Nature’s watercolor rendering of the sunset is hidden behind a curtain of purple and gray clouds. The twilight is beautiful and is cooling the day’s heat. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote, “Softly the evening came with the sunset.” I love the image that conjures up in my mind.

Behind the clouds Mother Nature painted a orangey-red wildfire across the horizon tonight and stroked watercolors of purple and pink on the nearby gathered clouds and “softly the evening came.” Twilight was so quiet tonight I could hear the cardinals’ beaks cracking open the black sunflower seeds. Just when I relaxed and was enjoying some lightning bug ballet, I see a groundhog cross the street and run down the driveway. Woe is me! Here we go again!!

Before darkness quieted the day, I walked around the yard checking on my flowers and my vegetable pots. The colors of the zinnia blooms are so rich and vivid. Been watching for the butterflies to come and tap dance on the zinnia stages. I never thought of vegetables as beautiful but the tender small yellow squash and a cluster of pale green tomatoes nearby are a pretty picture of God’s bounty.

I think we can find beauty in unexpected places if we realize we can celebrate imperfection. God places us on earth full of flaws. He doesn’t mind our blemishes, he loves us unconditionally and accepts us as we are. We need to accept ourselves as we are, too. We need to be grateful for our daily blessings. In reality we are all imperfect. I love this quote. “I realize that I don’t have to be perfect. All I have to so is show up and enjoy the messy, and imperfect and beautiful journey of my life,” Kerry Washington.

Some of us struggle our whole lives striving to be perfect. Happiness doesn’t come from our pursuit of perfection but from our acceptance and acknowledgement of our imperfections. Beauty is all around us, even in broken things we can find beauty. Our scars give us wisdom, adding to the beauty that makes us unique. 1 Samuel 16:7 states, “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Accepting ourselves as we truly are gives us a focus to look within our lives for happiness and contentment. Happiness is a fleeting emotion but contentment is a sense of peace and satisfaction. God promises through his grace we can endure the hardships and road blocks in our lives. He will remind us to see beauty that surrounds us in the imperfections of our life, teaching us to recognize the beauty and kindness of a gentle spirit.

“Accept yourself, and keep moving forward. If you want to fly, you have to give up what weighs you down.” — Roy T. Bennett