The most wonderful thing about retirement to me is laying my head down at night and knowing tomorrow has no agenda. The day is mine and I can choose to make the most of every moment. I had a beautiful day today. I’m so grateful for the life I have, my friends and family, my little dog, and all the beautiful critters in my yard. I know I’m blessed and try to not take life for granted. In this time of coming Thanksgiving I am very thankful!

The day was damp and cool. Father Sky painted a marbled overcast sky. Walked Penelope with the rain spitting down. We did not see any squirrels but saw lots of birds today. I think the cardinals love a cool day with rain sprinkles. They were flocking to the feeders every time I looked out the windows.

Mid day the clouds thinned out, so pretty with the thinning pale gray and white clouds, layers of light turquoise sky proudly peaking through.

Did chores today since it wasn’t porch pondering weather. Folded two basket of clothes, put them on my bed to put up shortly. Got distracted in the Christmas closets and came back and Miss Penelope had made herself a fine bed of my clean clothes. She had strewn the clothes all over the bed and was snoring in the middle of them. Course it was my fault and I’m not the most cheerful clothes folder upper. Guess I should wash more often and wouldn’t have so many to fold. Penelope has been “on a tear” as my mother use to say. I found a big piece of pizza crust in her dog bed in my room this morning. This is the second time. I swear she is calling for pizza delivery!

Put up a Christmas tree today in the kitchen. Made a garland out of strips of red and green bandanas. Searched forever looking for the collection of little wooden ornaments I usually put on that tree but could not find them in my aggregation of Christmas clutter. Probably a sin to have so much Christmas in one house. Anyway, I stumbled upon a box of red and green Christmas cookie cutters so I put them on the tree.

After the tree decorating I went out to the porch in time to watch the sunset and it was warmer, so I did a little porch pondering waiting for the sunset paintings to begin. Mother Nature was magnificent with her watercolor artwork tonight. I watched, perched in the porch swing, the line clouds changing their colors. The line clouds were stroked yellow and pink with Mother Nature’s paint brushes, a turquoise blue sky between the layers. As I marveled at the beauty in the colors of those line clouds, she brought her brush back down to the sky canvas and washed a light purple across the high clouds and striped the horizon in bright yellows and oranges and pinks. Perfectly beautiful and so fleeting. She really paints for the art museums and if you miss the show of her work it’s gone forever. She waits on no man!

When I looked toward the the sun on other side of the horizon, Mother Nature had given the sun a bright peachy pink pageant stage to begin her setting. The sun slid down the horizon in a blaze of lemon yellow and orange, pulling her rays in for the day, welcoming the coming dusk of evening. Father Sky kissed her good night and went to pin the moon and the stars in the night heavens.

I just love all the colors in the world around my house. I found the last of the fall leaves on a small maple that had come up near my gardenia bush. Penelope was after a chipmunk and I saw the pretty leaves. I picked the ones off the branches that were left dressed in their fall coats. Chief would have loved them if I brought them to him. We always brought each other the first colorful fall leaf we found. These leaves made me think of the beautiful colors in tonight’s sunset.

I was thinking about matching the colors of the leaves with Crayola crayon colors and discovered that Crayola has a box called fall crayons! I want one! Listen to the beautiful colors and all these beautiful colors are found in the little collection of leaves I picked and in the beautiful fall sunsets I’ve watched — alloy orange, big dip o’ruby, bittersweet shimmer, metallic sunburst, illuminating emerald, metallic seaweed, b’dazzled blue, and cyber grape. The crayons are wondrous colors.

I scribbled two quotes down on the back of a letter from Boss Lady the other day. Took a few minutes to transcribe my writing but I figured it out eventually. One of them is, “The beginning is always today,” from Mary Shelly. You think about it and realize we wake up everyday with a new beginning. The other quote is from Steve Maraboil, “Forget yesterday — it has already forgotten you. Don’t sweat tomorrow you haven’t even met. Instead open your eyes and your heart to a truly precious gift — today.”

Yesterday is behind us and a new day is before us. A gift of a fresh beginning for us and for the earth. We really never know what the day will bring, heartache or happiness. We shouldn’t worry about yesterday. Just focus on today. Use your energy to make a today a best day. Everyday is like a new chalkboard where we write our goals and dreams. Everyday the slate is wiped clean and we start again the next day. We hold the chalk and the eraser in our hands.

“Just as chalk can be removed from a chalkboard, with sincere repentance, the effects of our transgression can be erased through the atonement of Jesus Christ.” — Boyd K. Packer