Things You Learn from the Deck

I enjoy my deck.

I like sitting on it in the morning. For coffee and breakfast.  I like eating lunch on the deck.  And I really like eating casual dinners on the deck with my 2 daughters and hubby.  We even eat on the deck well into early October!

But something I truly love to do is just sit in that little reading corner you see in the photo above.  Just sit.

And be still.

You can learn a lot by being still.  And silent.

I tried it yesterday.  It was marvelous.....just sitting in the sunshine.......

............still.........and still practicing the Presence of God......

I learned some things yesterday from the deck......observations..........

of life all around me........

I saw my hard-working husband, who would have preferred to play his favorite computer games, working with wood......re-building our kayak rack.........in the sun with sweat on his brow......

I saw the mother robin teaching her 2 babies how to find food in the grass............the babies scurrying after her around that yard........following their mama much like my babies followed me around that same yard as I planted flowers, mowed the grass.......teaching them to play in the sandbox, to pump chubby legs on back-and-forth swings.......to lie on the grass and guess the pictures in the clouds.....to read in their secret garden........and I thought of how fleeting time is............

I saw the flowers budding and the petals opening...........

I saw the good that He has done.........and it IS good............

I went into the house for a coffee and heard my daughters, so grown up now, announcing that they would make pizzas for dinner.........working together much the same as they played together........creating, organizing........laughing and talking......

I saw my family all around me and it was good.

I saw the nod of approval my husband gave to the question about leaving the kayaks at our favorite lake.......I saw the gleam in his eye as he kissed me.......always blessing me with gifts.......

.........and I learned that God has indeed blessed us in ways more than financial............

our needs are met, we have shelter and food and clothing......

we have nature and fresh air to breathe and clean water to drink.........

we have each other..........

I heard the chirp of the robin, the crowing of the neighbor's rooster, the neigh of his horse, the roar of a motorcycle on the main road, the squeals of laughter from the neighbor boys........

all of these things from sitting on the deck...........

the things I learn from the deck are things that are eternal..........that we are loved unconditionally by God and that the people He places in our lives for His purposes are indeed  blessings..........

blessings abound if we just look............

you can learn much from your deck.......