The day is so pretty! The clouds are bleached white and fluffy, hurrying by on the horizon. Some of the clouds have a smokey gray middles. The sky, shyly peaking through the cloud cover in several places, is painted light blue. A slight breeze is making the smallest of my wind chimes whisper. Only the tops of the old magnolias across the street are being brushed by the breeze. My Uncle Jim Shaffer told me once when only the tip tops of the trees blow in the wind a bad storm is on the way. A quick check of Alabama’s weather radar shows some storms in the western counties heading our way.

Just noticed the clouds are floating along in different directions. On my left, the big fluffy cumulous clouds are blowing north and on my right, the thick layered nimbostratus clouds are blowing south. That’s interesting and it’s the wind’s fault. The atmosphere is like a big cake with different wind speeds and directions. So if you’re a fluffy cloud, whatever layer you’re in on the cake determines your direction. Wind shear is the wind changing its speed or direction. Little cloud lesson today for me and y’all.

I am so enjoying these juvenile cardinals with all their vibrant feathers in richly muted colors. Every one of them is dressed differently, even their are beaks are dissimilar. Their breasts are highlighted with downy feathers, all fluffed up in orange and reddish tints. Some not yet feathered as male or female. So beautiful when they all perch on a feeder together. Trying to capture this in a photograph today.

Saw some wondrous butterflies mid-morning. Didn’t disturb them while they flitted from flower to flower in my yard and on my porch. I finally got up to capture the butterflies’ dance recitals. They were so pretty dressed in their pale yellows, azure blues, oranges and blacks and browns. I looked the butterflies up to be sure I’d identified them correctly. I’m slowly learning to identify Alabama butterflies. Even their names are beautiful — Summer Azure, Cloudless Sulphur, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Long Tail Skipper, Zebra Swallowtail, and Gulf Fritillary.

I decided to watch the bird feeders for new visitors and I saw a male goldfinch gussied up in his bright yellow suit trimmed with black feathers. A charm of purple finches, who had dipped themselves in raspberry juice, came back today squabbling about the feeders and some pine siskins, feathered in olive browns and tans and blacks, dropped in for a late breakfast. The birds never cease to amaze me. These little songbirds give me so much pleasure. If it wasn’t so hot I’d sit in the swing and watch them all day long. Looking forward to the cool fall mornings.

“If I had influence with the good fairy… I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life,” Rachel Carson. It’s really sad we lose our childlike sense of wonder as we become adults. Guess as we grow up and age we push the wonderment of childhood back down. It’s always there, just waiting for us to discover it again. Maybe retirement brought mine back since it slowed down my pace of living and gave me all this wonderful free time to enjoy a calmer life, time to recapture my childlike sense of wonder.

I know I’m not really that old at 70 but I know my childlike sense of wonder is very much alive and well. I find myself marveling at all the beauty of God’s creation. I’m very mindful that the Lord chose to color Mother Earth. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says: “He has made everything beautiful in its time.” Imagine living in a black and white world. If you lose the ability to wonder and see the beauty in the world you lose your imagination and creativity. Retirement brought mine back since it slowed down my pace of living and gave me all this wonderful free time to enjoy a calmer life.

Take a walk with a small child and you’ll see all the wonder in the world — bugs, sticks, acorns, animal tracks, mud puddles, rocks, leaves…simple things that make a child pause, slow down and stop to take a closer look. I had never noticed all the beautiful tiny wildflowers till I stopped and looked down at the grass. I was always just walking to tend to Penelope but when I stopped and noticed the world around me, I saw the small delicately colored butterflies, the glorious sunshine of the yellow dandelions, the beauty of the juvenile cardinals as they’re dressing in their male and female plumage, the tiny pollen baskets on the bumblebees’ legs, the raspberry clouds in magnificent sunsets, the black mosquitos with zebra stripes, the muted colors in the layers of an overcast sky, the delicate blooms of the tomato vines…. I heard the cicadas singing, the hummingbird wings beating, the insects buzzing, the soft whisperings of breezes on the wind chimes, and the quiet rustling of my bamboo forest. Wonders all around me, I just didn’t have the time or the inclination to notice them before. If you can’t find contentment in the simple things of life, I don’t think you’ll ever be happy.

If you need a little wonder back in your life first find a reason to be curious about the world. Then put down the phone and go outside and take a closer look. Slow down and be a traveler in Mother Nature’s beautiful world. The planet Earth is a wonder on her own.

“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.” — Rachel Carson