Prayer For A New Day

It's 6am. I'm at the top of my driveway looking east after carting the garbage cans to the road. 

After depositing my charge at the blacktop, I stop to take in all that's going on around me. It's impossible not to notice because as the fire in the sky slowly grows, so do the sounds.
There are birds singing to one another all over the pastures around us in trills and cries - some singing as though for performance. It's so quiet I can hear a mosquito buzzing around my head. There's an owl not far off asking me Who? Who? I hear the choppy song of the crickets with the raspy saw of a few katydids still mixed in.  A low hissing and hum in the background reminds me that the tree frogs are still out in force.  One of the roosters bids the morning welcome while another young rooster crows a response in his hysterical kazoo-like voice. 

The breeze is not reminiscent of August. It's cool and calm and wet, and very pleasant. 

The sky is becoming lighter now tinged with more beautiful pinks and reds. Daylight happens all too quickly once the process has begun and the mere presence of the sun itself quiets nature from its earlier state because, once light, predators find the hiding places of those that call aloud. 

Morning is my favorite time of day. For me, God speaks on the breeze and through the call of his creatures, reminding me that I have yet another chance to right yesterday's wrongs.

Lord, thank you for your precious world. Thank you for all its sights and sounds and the way those draw me to you. Help me have listening ears, a tender heart and mind what's important and not the idle curiosities that steal my joy. Thank you for giving me a sound mind to make choices that please you and not the world. Thank you for being merciful and patient and loving, but also for whispering to my conscience when I need to change my thoughts and ways. Thank you for all you are and who you are. Amen.