I never thought I’d be turning heat on in the mornings in August but it’s a little too nippy to wait for the sun to rise above the trees. Personally I’m loving it. However, there are some who love hot weather even when it’s so humid it’s dripping water off the eves……..and as the old song goes…… “but not for me.”

Our rain has finally stopped and my neighbor, Dave, came to mow just to trim it up nice. I like to enjoy the deck once the sun is over the house enough that I can sit in the shade. The walker transports me good enough and my three outside cats take turns on my lap. They have really missed me and so has Napoleon. However, his days are taken up with grooming his feathers…….what a job! He goes over each one, day by day. I guess he knows what he’s doing but it seems tedious.

The backyard is a sanctuary for birds, butterflies and squirrels…..and me, from my vantage point on the deck. Rocky and I used to sit and watch the birds fly in, get a sunflower seed and then fly off to a nest. It’s good therapy to sit and watch what is only observed by me. If I weren’t here and they weren’t being watched, their days would go on the same. It is so refreshing from a world that cries to be watched and appreciated every moment.

It is good to watch God’s provision. Oh yes, I buy the seed but somebody had to plant it, harvest it, take it to market and end up in a feed store for me to buy it. It is God who made it possible for me to have funds enough to feed an orphaned peacock, seven stray cats and a dog. It is He who continues to provide for my needs beyond necessity.

If nature is understood and appreciated God is ever closer. I like to think of Him as the God of the outdoors. It is there He seems so near. The value of the dirt beneath my feet, the beauty of the growing plants, bushes and trees…..the magnificence of the flying things, the songs of the birds. It is all a healing tool inside and out.

If I had not fractured a bone I would have missed much of what I’ve written about. I would have been busy, housework, errands to run, calls to make, doing things that needed doing. However, since I can’t do them…….I am being filled with the real life I always crave. Time. Time to enjoy what I’ve been given and time to enjoy the scenes God makes in my own backyard.

I am always in awe of God’s timing, His teaching, His mercy and love.

Essentially Esther