Sat in the porch swing this morning eating my bagel and fruit. The morning was perfect for porch swing perching — eighty degrees with an overcast sky the color of melted vanilla ice cream swirled with blueberry syrup, songbirds all over the feeders chirping their morning symphonies, squirrels playing tag around the old water oak trunk, my flowers all blooming in a riot of colors, not closing their blossoms from the oppressive heat. A rain shower came mid-morning and briefly cooled the air. But once the sun burned a hole in the canvas of clouds, the porch gradually got too hot. Penelope gave up first, wanting to head to the air conditioning sooner than me. I finally gave up later and came inside to do some quote searching.

Came back out to perch in the swing during the magical hour of twilight and watched Mother Nature stroke her watercolor brushes across the heavens in shades of purple and pink and mauve. I saw the sun, dressed as a ripe peach, chase Father Sky down the golden hued horizon. As I smiled at the glorious sunset, I watched Mother Nature’s pink brush strokes fade into the purple bellies of the thunderstorm clouds as the cicadas loudly sang their goodnight symphony. When the darkness dropped and the night became silent I came in the house.

Been jotting down quotes this afternoon and tonight, printing them in a little notebook thinking I may be able to decipher my handwriting at a later day, probably not. This quote makes me laugh and is for all my Shady Oak cronies. Just doesn’t seem like something Emerson would say but he’s credited with this one. “The age of a woman doesn’t mean a thing. The best tunes are played on the oldest fiddles.” Gotta love that! Makes me chuckle. Bet I could play some tunes on that old fiddle!

Ralph Waldo Emerson has so many thought provoking words of wisdom in his quotes. I love his simple, “Hitch your wagon to a star.” Six little words of so much enlightenment. I think we should all set high goals for ourselves, lofty goals that we think are beyond our reach. We should hitch our wagon to God’s star and let the light of our faith guide us. When we hitch our wagon to God we are blessed with God’s grace. Through our prayers and thanksgiving we anchor ourselves to God and his grace gives us the courage to reach for things we thought might be impossible. Proverbs 16:9 states, “In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.” Never doubt the strength of God and prayer. Prayers and faith can move mountains of obstacles.

I think this Dr. Seuss quote is simple in words but deep in thought. “Don’t cry because its over. Smile because it happened.” Good advice for being grateful. So many of us are quick to cry when we should smile and be grateful. We should focus on being thankful for the happy times instead of being sad that the happy times ended. Life isn’t promised to be sunny all the time and bad things do happen to good people. It’s alright to mourn and be sad but treasured moments need to be remembered with joyful breath-taking smiles. One Thessalonians 5:18 says: “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” Appreciate all the little moments in life because life is so, so short and time is fleeting. God wants us to see the joy in living.

Was thinking how my garden and lawn need a long soaking rain and I came across these two quotes by Emerson and Roger Miller about the rain. Miller is quoted, “Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet.” Emerson wrote, “The best thing one can do when it’s raining is to let it rain.” It does rain often in our lives and sometimes it storms. Our attitude has so much to do with how we walk through a day. We can let it storm and enjoy looking for the promised rainbow or we can be miserable and wet all day. God’s love can put sunshine in the storms of our lives. Just be grateful to be alive and let the rain, rain. It won’t last forever. We’ve always got the promise of a new day tomorrow.

“I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning.” — J. B. Priestley