I love birds. The songs they sing as the sun rises fill my heart with joy. Watching them fly from feeder to feeder in my yard is one of my greatest pleasures. Birds often give my spirit an instant uplift of hope.

Recently, while visiting Creamy Acres, a farm and garden center located near my home, I expected to see the normal barnyard animals. While we walked among the goats, rabbits, chickens and calves, a piercing cry suddenly alerted us to the presence of the exotic. When we located  the source of the sound coming from the top of the farmhouse porch roof, we were astonished to see the magnificent plumage of a peacock. Sometimes small surprises and pleasures can fill a whole day, and even beyond, with joy. In my own life, unexpected  blessings, like the sighting of a peacock on a porch roof, bring a sense of hope, even if many of my circumstances at the moment are dark.

“‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers—
That perches in the soul—
And sings the tune without the words—
And never stops—at all—”
~ Emily Dickinson

The first stanza of this poem by Emily Dickinson is a favorite of mine. The rooftop peacock (the ‘thing with feathers’) is still perched in my soul, the remembrance giving me a bit of wind beneath the wings of my spirit.

I also cherish the multitude of  hope-filled verses within the pages of the Bible, and  use as an example this verse in Isaiah that compares hope with the image of an eagle. God bless your day with hope.

“But those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” ~ Isaiah 40:31