Cerulean blue sky today. White fluffy clouds, barely cigar smoke gray on the bottoms. Nice breeze for a while, strong enough to compose a wind chime symphony. I ate my bagel and fruit watching the fighting finches and cardinals. Lots of small wrens around today. They’ve not fattened up yet like the mature ones. The purple finches cleaned all the seeds from their favorite feeder. Guess they were hungry. I put out new suet and the downy woodpeckers came calling. The squirrels are enjoying the seeds on the ground. I clap and they run away. I guess that’s mean but I laugh as they scamper back. They’re not afraid of me. They’re leaving the bird feeders alone and eating from the bird camera feeder thinking that’s their feeder. They look straight into the camera stuffing seeds in their mouths. They have lots of personality almost like they know I’m watching them.

Today feels like the second day of summer. Soon as I wrote that sentence I realized it is the second day of summer. Mother Nature has turned up the heat. If you like heat and humidity today was your day. I sat for a while pondering in the porch swing with a box fan blowing my way. We had a glorious morning sunshower under a bright blue sky filled with white fluffy clouds. The wind picked up and briefly blew the rain in on me. By the time I got comfortable in the other swing on the other side of porch the shower and wind stopped. Mother Nature then dialed up the heat and humidity sending me back in the house.

Actually got to watch the sunset tonight, no curtain of clouds to mar my view. As I sat down in the swing Mother Nature picked up her paint brushes and washed the horizon in golden honeybee watercolors. The surrounding crowd of clouds, outlined in bright white, had their bellies painted in shades of purples and lilacs. So pretty! Glancing back as I went in the house, Mother Nature had begun brushing hot pink on the clouds in the high heavens. Sunset is a beautiful thing to watch but fleeting in its colors. Watching the sunset shift from golden honey to hot pink is a reminder for us to slow down and appreciate the present moments.

I’ve been thinking of my view from the porch as like a view of my life. In my view now the sky is beautiful with the setting sun. Mother Nature has painted a colorful glorious sunset. If you look at your life when you’re young and raising your family your view is full of dreams of the American dream, seeking your own version of success and upward mobility. We see sunny days bright with new babies, families growing and changing, challenging times of trials and tribulations, days of storms and darkness, but God’s rainbows will always show up and bring sunshine to these days.

Raising our children at the end of a dirt road in a yard full of chickens and cats and dogs colored happy days for Chief and me. The days of raising children that so often seem to last forever are so fleeting. You’ll blink and your children will be adults. Chief and I had our share of stormy days but we always knew through our faith in God there was hope in the sunshine of another tomorrow. Don’t ever give up looking for the rainbow. Stormy days help us appreciate and be grateful for the blessings in the life we are living.

God helps us choose our path to walk. We have free will to decide but through prayer God guides us. “And your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, ‘this is the way, walk in it,’ when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left,” Isaiah 39:21. Sometimes our view of life is obstructed by vines of adversity that tangle us up and cause us to pause and check the direction in which we’re headed. If we choose the wrong path, like a scuppernong vine pruned in the wrong season, we bear no fruit. Be careful at forks in your life’s path. A wrong step can affect you for the rest of your life. Pray for guidance and choose your path wisely. Proverbs 3:5-6 reads, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”

Isaiah reads, “Even to your old age and gray hairs I am He, I am He who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.” As we age and grow older, we enter the twilight of our lives and our view changes to a sunset of memories. Our days are overgrown with the love of our families and friends. We’ve slowed down enough to watch the sun rise and the sun set. We’ve earned our views from porch swings and rocking chairs. We have time to watch thunderstorms through our windows and marvel at the power of Mother Nature. And we’re firm in our belief that behind these storms, whether in nature or in our lives, we’ll find God’s love in a rainbow.

“Not all storms come to disrupt your life, some come to clear your path.” — Paul Coelho