Oh, man, what a beautiful day today. I could hear James Brown singing, “I feel good,” when I sat down in the swing to eat my breakfast. The sky was dark blue, full of fluffy bleached white clouds. The wind was softly tickling the wind chimes, pinging out individual notes for the morning’s quiet yard symphony. The birds are still scarce but I saw a few cardinals and some finches. Three black as night crows were chasing a mocking bird across the blue sky. Usually he’s bothering them.

Later the wind picked up and pounded out a loud melody on the wind chimes’ pipes. The butterflies were clinching onto the zinnia petals trying not to get blown away. My yard was just full of butterflies. You know, butterflies can’t see their wings so they probably don’t know how beautiful they are. But we all can see their delicate elegance. My dearest friend is a wondrous butterfly, flitting around quietly doing good deeds unassumingly, not realizing what a beautiful soul she is. She has many jewels in her butterfly crown.

I was like a child walking around watching the butterflies on the zinnias. One zinnia had four monarchs, a yellow cloudless sulfur, and two little brown butterflies tap dancing around her blooms. I tried so hard to get a photo but finally just gave up and decided to sit, not interrupt them, just enjoy watching their butterfly ballet. When the yellow butterflies rested on the yellow pansy blooms it was beautiful, the contrasting shades of yellow against the forest green of the pansy leaves. It was a picture, as Chief would say. Mother Nature has such wondrous watercolors. She’s quite an artist.

Went outside after supper to sit in the swing and watch the pageantry of the setting sun. Mother Nature dipped her brushes in pale pink with a touch of turquoise and colored the sky so prettily. The clouds were rolling in, their bellies gray, filling with rain, and behind the rain clouds you could see a few pink clouds shyly hidden, embarrassed to be dressed in a different color. Father Sky kissed the sun goodnight in the midst of the gray cloud cover and proceeded to wake up the man in the moon, hanging the moon and stars high on the purple sky canopy, hoping the clouds will part, letting us mortals see them shine in their glory tonight.

I just checked the night sky and the stars are still hidden along with the moon, but I know they’re all shining bright, their jeweled beauty lighting up the sky, faithfully performing their duties even though we can’t see them. A star can be a beacon of hope lighting our way, a magical, mystical light that inspires us. I love to stand in the yard after night falls and gaze up at the sky. I wonder if Chief and Rosie see the stars in the sky of heaven. Research says there’s are 200 billion trillion stars in the heavens. Must be glorious to look down through the magnificence of the stars in heaven and see the planet Earth.

The stars are used for light and navigation. A single star doesn’t provide much illumination. But when we live a righteous life we shine like the collected stars in the sky. We let our stars shine through our good deeds. Let’s all wish on a falling star tonight for the world to find some peace. The world needs to put an end to suffering, pain, and loss. Let’s wish for us all to learn to live in a harmonious world, to learn to love one another, to respect and accept each other in all our differences.

We have to shine our own light to be a star and follow the path God has laid before us. Don’t worry about the darkness because that is when your star shines the brightest.

“I will love the night for it shows me the way; yet I will love the darkness for it shows me the stars,” — Augustine “Og” Mandino