heavenly sunshine

sunshine is delicious. rain is refreshing. wind braces us up. snow is exhilerating. there's really no such thing as bad weather, just different kinds of good weather.

-john ruskin

i completely agree. but let me just say here and now that the weather we have had the past 5 or so days has been PERFECT. i would take 80 degrees and a clear blue sky with sunshine any day of the year. there is something about this weather that makes me feel so happy and so content and so...ALIVE! i love it. i love driving with my windows down and my sunroof open and my arm hanging out the window blasting my favorite music. i don't even care if my hair gets messed up from getting tangled up by the wind. i love how the breeze makes it cool, but the sunshine shooting down from my sunroof makes my shoulders and face and the tops of my legs warm. i love reading on my porch in the evenings when i get home from work. i love wearing my cute, spring dresses to work everyday. i love that it's actually fun to be outside right now - it's not too cold, and it's not too hot. i love that nighttime is still cool enough to throw on a sweatshirt and sit outside and look at the stars. which brings me to my next point.

when i look at the stars i feel like myself.

-switchfoot

so true. i pretty much feel like "ashley" all the time, but if you know me, then you know i love the stars (don't be fooled by the failing grade i took in astronomy sophomore year). i mean, i LOVE the stars. i hang my head out the window at night (of a moving car) to stare at them. i frequently stop in the middle of parking lots to gaze up at the sky. i truly love them. and i think, in a way, i really do feel more like myself when i gawk at them. i realize how small i am, and how big God is. i mean, He is BIG. i'm insignificant, and umimportant, and pretty transient. BUT (and what an i mportant but it is), God loves me. oh, He loves me! i am valuable, and i am treasured, and He delights in me, and He desires me! God made all of the glorious creation i see, and it does exactly what it should do: it points to Him; it brings Him glory. but then he made me, and although the thing i do best is mess up my life, He loves me and i'm chosen and called out and blessed and favored! incredible.