Another beautiful day the Lord hath made and I’m grateful to be alive and experience it. Clear happy blue sky, cloudless as far as I could see. I picked up Penelope from vet brother’s clinic and we went on a long walk when we got home. She had to sniff every inch of the yard. I wonder what she thinks when she smells the grandchildren’s dog, Magnolia. I wonder if it makes her mad to come home and know another dog has claimed her territory for the weekend. She’s just too frisky to have been around all the little children and not well behaved enough to stay in a room by herself. Magnolia stayed upstairs during the Christmas dinner and didn’t make a peep. She minds very well.

Chief and I left Penelope here at home once and went out to eat supper. One of my neighbors heard her crying and called us at the restaurant to tell us it sounded like a dog might be “caught on something under the house.” Miss Priss was just sitting on the back of the living room sofa looking out the window and crying and baying because she wasn’t invited to dinner. That little thing spoiled our supper ‘cause Chief insisted we go home and check on her. She’s a character.

Sat in the swing briefly this morning to enjoy the flock of goldfinches who have checked into my bird hotel. Could not ponder long, the wind was bitter, banging the wind chime pipes and biting my hands and cheeks. The gold finches are so pretty, little piggy round and fat, dressed in their yellow-green vests and striped coats of black and white. They are an odd color, maybe olive would describe them best. They won’t dress in their bright yellow sport coats till spring and early summer. They are very congenial, flying around in their little flocks. They always seem so happy to be alive, chattering and flitting around. Mr. Downy Woodpecker did not drop in for his suet breakfast this morning. He must be in the coffee club down the street. The goldfinches mingled with the other yard guests, the faithful cardinals, the timid titmice, and the cussing chickadees. Lots of bird solos in the yard symphony this morning.

Turned a chair around in the lady den late afternoon and sat down to enjoy the pageant of sunset. Mother Nature chose a palette today of peach and watermelon, painting the horizon in a beautiful wash of magnificent color. The sun walked down the horizon, escorted by Father Sky. The sun was dressed in a gown of golden light, dragging her train along the perfectly painted peach horizon. Father Sky tucked the sun in her watermelon cloud covers and she turned the day to night. Father Sky closed the pageant, hung the slivered moon and pinned the sparkling diamonds to the navy sky canvas, and the night music began.

There is so much music in nature. I love to sit on the porch and listen to the different symphonies Mother Nature plays. Guess we humans have been communicating through song for thousand of years. Nature’s music sounds distinct in different landscapes. When I went to the Blue Ridge Mountains, I could hear the wind stroke the leaves on the tall trees of the forest surrounding the cabin’s deck. The birds had a deeper toned voice and the sunsets and sunrises played their symphonies high over the mountain tops singing the beautiful colors of a rainbow spectrum.

In the summer with the windows open in my bedroom, I’m comforted and lulled to sleep listening to the crickets and the soft bird songs. The beach has the wonderful heartbeat of the waves slapping the sand softly, then beating a loud drum when the tides rushes back to shore. My bird friends serenade me all year with their love songs to their mates and their loud squawks of alarm to warn of intruders in the yard and sky.

Guess we are music, too. Born screaming a symphony of life then growing up through happy childlike melodies, changing to heavy drum beats as we transform into adults. Our life symphony grows and grows with a loud creschendo and when we reach middle age the music changes to a beautiful soft, even toned melody of life. That melody stays with us till we leave this earth and join the harps of heaven.

“Be music always. Keep changing the key, tone, pitch and volume of each of the songs you create along life’s journey and play on.” — Suzy Kasseum