Porch pondered in the porch swing today after overcoming my Thanksgiving food coma! Beautiful day, a little cool, bright azure sky with wispy clouds. Father Sky had scratched his white pastel stick across his blue sky canvas and blurred the lines. I could see blue sky through the thin clouds. The warm sunshine warmed my face and my little dog’s body as we passed the morning on the porch. The cardinals and purple finches were enjoying the bird feeders and bird baths. Did not see one squirrel or chipmunk today. They must be visiting family away from my yard for Thanksgiving.

Had some cousin visitors this afternoon and we sat on the porch and ate chocolate cake and drank Dr. Pepper. I saw them ride by slowly and I yelled, “That car better stop at my house!” I still think of them as children. They aren’t as old as me but they are “getting up there.” My house was a Christmas tornado zone! Every surface in the dining room and breakfast room and the grandchildren’s room is covered in a hodgepodge of Christmas chaos and clutter. I know they thought I was crazy but we had a wonderful time talking and reminiscing. Lots of life giving laughter. Laughter is the best medicine when the heart is sad.

I missed the sunset last night but tonight’s sunset was glorious and made up for my missing yesterday’s. The whole horizon was bathed in a peach colored light in a myriad of peach and apricot shades. The brush strokes of Mother Nature’s paint brush got darker and darker till the sun, dressed in her shimmering golden gown, lay her head down in a sea of peachy-apricot cloud covers. The moon woke up and dressed himself in his luminous suit and took his place in the heavens before Father Sky had kissed the sun goodnight. I could see the man in the moon, hanging on his heavenly perch, as I walked Penelope. Later I went out on the porch to check for stars and saw a big raccoon walking down my sidewalk. Don’t know why I am such a critter magnet. Father Sky stingingly dispersed his diamonds tonight. Just a few twinkles in my sky. Don’t mind the stars staying under their cloud covers tonight, it’s 46 degrees in my corner of Alabama.

I’ve seen this quote several times lately on the internet. “Life is like a piano. The white keys are happy days, and the black keys are sad ones. Remember that you need both to make music.”

I took piano lessons as a child but never could get my left hand in gear with the right hand. Those lessons taught me to read music and helped me in learning to play a band instrument and to enjoy singing in the church choir.

Everyone plays their piano of life differently. Some of us just ping alone with one note at a time, being careful not to play out of tune or lose the melody. Some of us bang out the notes like a child, charging down the keys of life, stumbling on some of the black keys, but not lifting our feet from the notes. Some of us get lost in the melody and need help getting back on the right page of the music.

We live our lives with a melody we choose. We may not all put our fingers on the notes the same way and sometimes we’ll play an interesting melody that only we can appreciate. You might think of the white keys as happiness and the black keys as sadness but together they can produce a beautiful melody.

I was sad today. I watched the crimson cardinals and looked up at the gorgeous clear blue sky and longed for Chief to be sitting by me in the rocking chair by the swing. You wonder sometimes how life just keeps on going when things happen that rock your world. I have so many blessings and I’m grateful for everyone of them, but the holidays are melancholy when you are missing loved ones around the holiday dinner table.

But as we keep up with our piano lessons in life we learn to sight read the difficult melodies and realize there is beautiful music in grief. Great loves have great grief and we learn to navigate the difficult melodies with songs of memory in our hearts. These memories comfort us and help us place our hands on the piano keys again.

Through prayer and thanksgiving we learn to trust that God is helping us in our musical choices of life. He helps us turn sorrow to joy, tragedy too blessings, and despair into hope. We are God’s chosen instruments and God is conducting the symphonies of our lives