Thought I had a burglar last night when the neighborhood watch dog started barking on my porch at my back door. Crept to the back door with my favorite weapon, a golf club driver. Couldn’t see anything out the back door but looking out the dining room window I could see a raccoon standing up on the window sill. No burglar but a raccoon! Bootsie could have gotten him but she was too busy barking the neighborhood watch dog signal. Penelope joined in on the bark train, too. Bootsie walked off for a second and the raccoon hopped down and ran off, Bootsie high tailing after it. Maybe that one will leave the neighborhood now. Just ordered an animal trap with oldest brother volunteering to come and remove them. Bye, bye raccoons!

Cold day today with a strong wintry wind blowing. Did not see a snow flake but I won’t give up till mid-April. Been ensconced in my reading chair in the lady den, under my cardinal blanket, watching the bamboo and the songbirds out the windows. The bamboo have tiny frozen drops of rain on the tips of their slender green leaves, diamond nail polish, so pretty when the sun highlights a branch. The winter wind is really blustery, twisting the bamboo around making them dance to the wind chime symphony. They are getting a Zumba workout. I enjoy watching them dance around in their forest.

The little songbirds dressed in their colorful winter plumage are all over the bird feeders, chirping and flitting around. I wonder if they are cold. I read that birds shiver to stay warm. Chickadees can maintain a body temperature of 100 degrees even when the temperature is 0 degrees. They are tough little creatures.

I’m thankful for my warm house and my furnace and hope those souls shivering in the night can find some source of warmth. Most of us are so blessed, just turn the thermostat up not thinking of those who have no home, or no heat.

One of my friends sent me this quote about the sunset. “Bursts of gold on lavender melting into saffron. It’s the time of day when the sky looks like it has been spray painted by a graffiti artist,” Mia Kirshner. I love the color imagery and saffron is a great color for the sun when it’s yellow at sunset.

I watched the sunset tonight, a pale orangey-peach tint across the horizon, lighter shades reflected on the large clouds above the skyline. The sun was a fiery ball of yellow, slowly rolling down her peach runway. As the wintry wind blew, the sun turned her cheek to Father Sky and switched off the day’s light. The crescent moon and the bejeweled stars coldly lit up the navy sky canopy as the night began to wake. The wind chimes are playing night music, serenading the yard creatures. A rumbling twilight freight train, speeding through the nightfall, is blowing its lonely forlorn whistle, the sound echoing into the dark, down the steel rails. The night is now awake in its darkness.

The quote for January 16 from my new quote book is, “Just be who you want to be, not what others want to see,” Unknown. Maybe we can change this to “Just be who God wants you to be.” We all have so many labels that identify us — daughter, wife, mother, grandmother, friend… We live our lives through the roles we play. I’m not sure we ever be just who we want to be. I think God wants us to live faithful and fruitful lives, serving him with pure hearts and clean minds. He wants us to live lives full of kindness to others.

We spend so much time worrying about what people think of us when in all actuality we don’t even cross their minds. We try to keep up appearances and make ourselves miserable. When we faithfully put our lives in God’s hands, he can show us through our faith who he wants us to be. We can lay our worries on his shoulders and know God will support us. He will give us the courage to be who we want to be. God will give us the confidence to be our true selves.

“The easiest thing to be in the world is you. The most difficult thing to be is what other people want you to be. Don’t let them put you in that position.” ― Leo Buscaglia