The big water oak in my yard is shedding his brown leaves and covering my yard with his ballerinas. I love to watch the leaves spiraling down when the wind blows. It’s like a beautiful choreographed ballet performance. I call it Tchaikovsky’s Leaf Lake. The acorn bombs are beginning to fall from the branches when the wind blows, too. One of them pinged me on the head when I was filling up the bird feeders. It really hurt. I’m amazed watching all the squirrels and chipmunks running around stuffing their cheeks with acorns. The chipmunks run all over the porch. Penelope loves watching them.

Sat on the porch for hours today just enjoying the beautiful day. The sky was so blue and the sparse clouds so white. Watched a wake of buzzards, their large black wings outstretched, climb high in the sky floating on the wind currents, climbing higher with every circle. Always wondered why buzzards were photographed sitting on dead tree limbs. Never thought about their wings being the reason. Buzzards have clumsy wings and need to find a dead tree or one with a few leafless branches to light on. Used to be a dead tree near the school up the street and the buzzards would roost on it. It was so spooky to ride by and see a wake of them on the branches. They aren’t pleasant to look at but they do good work cleaning up carrion and road kill. Read that no animal will eat a dead buzzard.

Went outside late afternoon at the perfect time to catch the sun setting in all her glory. Mother Nature painted a masterpiece today. The sky was just ablaze in color, tangerine orange with one brush stroke of turquoise closest to the horizon. I watched the shades of color go from vibrant tangerine to soft orange to pale lemon hues. The sun lay her head down in a blaze of yellow rays and kissed the night awake as she shut her eyes for the day. Father Sky polished his full moon and hung him high, gleaming and bright, up in the sky behind my house. The stars are pinned, scattered like a handful of diamonds on the purple sky, and the night is as soft as a summer evening. If Chief were here we’d be sitting on the porch listening to the night critters sing. I miss him.

Got a surprise in the mail today from Boss Lady. Sent me a lovely crocheted lap blanket. I’m thrilled and sitting under it now. This old house with its high ceilings gets cold when the sun goes down. Love that she chose to crochet mine in blue with her reasons being “I chose the color for two reasons. First, blue reminded me of some of your descriptions of the sky. Second, it is Carolina blue in honor of Chief’s connections to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.” She loved my husband. They were great friends and corresponded frequently. She’s my pen pal, too. Hope we have a visit together in the coming year. I miss her. She was a great boss. Always made us feel appreciated and validated in our work with the publications at Russell Corporation.

It feels so good to get a surprise from someone who you know loves you. No reason, no rhyme, just a token of the love they have for you. I was watching the birds and the butterflies today and thinking of them as gifts from God. I got up off the porch and walked around the yard following the monarchs and yellow butterflies marveling in their beauty, watching their dainty little thin black legs tip toeing on the zinnia blooms. Took some photographs, careful not to disturb them.

The butterfly is a symbol of hope and faith. Going through so many transformations in its life cycle, I guess it’s also a symbol of rebirth. We can learn a lot from watching the butterfly in its constant flight, so soft and defenseless. Butterflies have to be patient. We learn that things worth waiting for are worthwhile. Sometimes we pray and have to wait for our answer. Sometimes the answer is not the outcome we wanted but like the butterfly we need to be open to change. Change is hard to accept but change is part of our everyday life. Our faith in God can transform our lives. We can go about our daily lives safe and secure in our knowledge that God is watching over us and protecting us.

Like the butterfly who begins as a larva and is transformed through the cycles of its life into a beautiful creature, our belief in God grows as we mature, transforming us into Christians who should spread our beliefs of God’s love with the world. Our lives, by the way we live them, can be a testament of our faith. We don’t have to be solemn in our religion, we can be light and free with God’s love. We can spread our wings and fly on our faith knowing God is watching over us. Butterflies are spontaneous and live in the moment. Being spontaneous is hard for some but spontaneity can being joy and sunshine to our days. I’ve read that butterflies are the “heaven sent kisses of an angel.” I love that. I had a monarch light on my face once. Its little legs tickling my face as it walked on my cheek.

Butterflies fly around from bloom to bloom, unconcerned about how short their lives are. They flit and flutter around enjoying every moment of their existence. Our lives are short. The older I get the faster time flies and I’m conscious of how I live my days. We can enjoy every moment of our existence, too, but we know we will have obstacles on our paths. Trusting in our faith and prayers helps us get back to the sunshine of God’s love. Like the caterpillar that is transformed into a beautiful creature, we can transform ourselves through our prayers and faith in God.

Anything is possible, you just have to have enough faith to believe it is possible.

“Butterflies are God’s confetti, thrown upon the Earth in celebration of His love,” — K. D’Angelo.