Attitude of Gratitude: screwdrivers.  Sometimes life needs fine tuning, or more likely, batteries changed.  My two year old grandson Zane is quite handy with a screwdriver.  He can quickly dismantle toys in a flash.  The other day his mother went to open the sliding door and the handle fell off: the mad screw-driving toddler at work again!  He can find a screw driver faster than you can say, "the Energizer Bunny." His concentration is marvelous looking like a surgeon at work.  Do you need your batteries charged? 

Summer is upon us as May days have flown away.  Plan your summer with things to look forward to like family camp the last weekend of July at South Lake Tahoe.  Find a pot and plant at least one vegetable like basil, cilantro or a tomato if you haven't already.  Cheat if you must and buy herbs at the store and leave out on your kitchen counter to be aromatic.  Go to the Farmer's Market.  Go to the river.  Fish.  Swim.  Sip lemonaide!  Open your windows at night to a gentle breeze.  Find good books that refresh your soul and read at least a Psalm a day. We all need to plan for relaxation for restoration. 

"A soft sea washed around the house

A sea of summer air."

Emily Dickinson

"Sunshine is a welcome thing."

Jimmie Davis

"Look at the trees,

Look at the birds,

Look at the clouds,

Look at the stars...

And if you have eyes

You will be able to see that the

Whole existence is joyful.

Everything

is simply

Happy.

"We can only be said to be alive in those moments where our hearts are conscious of our treasures."

"To see the summer sky

is poetry though never in a book it lie--

True poems fly."

Emily Dickinson

"The Lord sustains all who fall,

And raises up all who are bowed down."

Psalm145:14

Attitude of Gratitude: fellowship of believers.  We weren't of the same age, the same body build, the same interests, not even of the same political party (sigh).  We don't have the same hobbies, have the same income, drive the same cars, have the same tatooes, or watch the same television shows.  Some are dog lovers; some cat lovers while others aren't pet friendly at all.  What else can make us have a great Sunday afternoon together from 2 weeks to those looking at 70 years old?  Some swam, some braved the steep slide, some sat under umbrellas, some in the jump house, some on the trampoline, some on the swingset, some drinking soda on the porch, all with smiles on their faces.  From the beginning of the Early Church, Christians like to eat together and hang out at each other's houses.  Thank you to Greg and Tina for opening your place for us all to fellowship. 

"We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy."

Joseph Campbell

Happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely,

 to risk life, to be needed."

S. Jameson

"...they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God..."

Acts 2:46-47

Attitude of Gratitude: a small green tomato, the first of this year's garden.  It's a promise that inspite of slugs and sow bugs,and a less than green thumb,  a harvest is coming!

"It's difficult to think of anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato."

Lewis Grizzard

"In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell a little like dirt."

Margaret Atwell

"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin."

William Shakespeare

When I was dating my man, my father took him out to show him his little garden in the back yard of our coastal town.  He had coaxed and carefully tended his tomato plant and sure enough, it was producing one big, beautiful red tomato almost at its peak of ripeness.  My guy grabbed it off the vine and began munching just as he had done growing up in Kansas.  My dad was speechless: it was his one and only garden baby he had been coaxing along just waiting for the prime time for picking.  Amazingly, my father still let him pick me to marry.

"But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His  Son..."

Galatians 4:4

Pick Jesus!