Southern Symphony

I love living in the South.

I love the heat, the pop-up rainshowers (around here we call them clearing off showers). 

I love the way the sun shines through the tall pines every morning infusing me with it's warmth. 

I love hearing the birds chirping outside my window, watching the hummingbirds dart and race and fight over the feeders. Lately, it's quite dangerous to stand at the porch rail, because you stand a good chance of getting nailed in the head during the heated battle between two dominant little meanies vying to be King of the Feeder.

But now, it's evening, and I sit listening to the kattydids and the crickets sing their love songs, in a few minutes it'll be darker and the frogs will join the symphony.  After a good rain it's so loud that it's almost impossible to carry on a normal conversation outside, because nature has her volume turned up.

And as night falls, the lightening bugs come out of their hiding places and wink their lights at me, sending me back to my childhood, to the days when I would catch them and keep a few in a mason jar.

 Tonight the critters create a peaceful sonata. They serenade me, and something about the simple, continous background noise takes the worry, and the stress of the past week and sends it to some far away place....reminding me that there is so much more to life than checking off the to do list.

Sometimes what I need most is to just stop and listen and enjoy. :)