Saw the most beautiful sunset today. I was cooking supper when it started, a warm honey glow coloring the horizon. I was thinking the pageant would be subdued tonight but when I left the stove to look toward the setting sun, I saw the most glorious sunset with streaks of lavender and purple. The backdrop of sky was pure lavender up to the high clouds where Mother Nature had stroked her watercolor brushes of purple and pink and turquoise across the clouds. Next time I looked out a wash of pale peach was coloring the stage as the sun rolled down the horizon behind the black bare limbs of the old oak trees. The sun quickly crawled under her quilt of peach clouds and told Father Sky goodnight as she turned off the day’s light.

Father Sky, buttoning up his winter parker with its fur lined hood, walked across the navy sky to wake the moon and stars. Putting on tweed wool mittens, he hung the milky white, third phase moon high on the night’s stage and chunked handfuls of stars up in the night sky to gleam and glitter like blushing diamonds on the velvet black sky canopy. Night has officially begun as he and Mother Nature warm their toes by solar flares.

When I woke this morning I glanced out the window and saw a beautiful blue sky canvas and a handsome crimson cardinal sitting on a bamboo limb close to the window. You know I’m going to say it was Chief sitting on the limb. I enjoy a cold day but I’m ready from temperatures to moderate. Penelope has kept her sweater on all day, so she’s been cold, too. We’ve spent the day under our cardinal lap blanket looking at all the Christmas things that still need to be put away and watching all the birds on the feeders outside the lady den windows.

Lots of American goldfinches are coming into the yard now. The males haven’t put on their bright yellow sport coats yet but they are all beautiful in their olive and pale yellow plumage. Titmice, chickadees, purple finches, and cardinals frolicked around the feeders today. I thought I heard a raccoon outside on the feeder pole after dark. I hope not! Penelope barked at the window so maybe that was a deterrent.

Been reading some different books of quotes today. One quote I remember is “Play the tiles you get,” by Grandma Nelly. My family loves to play Scrabble. My oldest grandson has a love of the game, too. Before we had children, Chief and I would play Scrabble with my mama. Chief always won but we never gave up. I beat Chief and my son Thomas once and I was so proud of myself! I had been playing Scrabble on the computer and had learned some new two letter words.

Play the tiles you are given, good advice, sometimes hard to do. When life drops a tile we can’t play, we become discouraged and distracted, wondering pessimistically how on earth can we make a word with what life just dealt us. Life is not promised to be an easy path to walk. We’re challenged everyday by the cycle of life’s normal up and downs. Change is a part of life, too. How we face these Scrabble letters, that are hard to play, figures into our happiness. We can accept these road blocks and learn from them or moan about them and be miserable. Praying to God and asking him to help us accept our life’s challenges can help us be content on the path we’ve found ourselves walking. Let the worries of our life’s Scrabble game rest in the hands of God. He will lay down the correct letter. He will always find the right word.

“Life is not a book, it is merely scrabble.” — Sylversong