Another glorious cold wintry day of the new year. I saw nothing in the azure blue sky today except buzzards and crows, the birds’ black wings glistening in the sunshine, the murder of crows’ caws echoing on the wind. Later Father Sky drug his white pastel stick lightly across the horizon sketching some thin wisps of clouds that quickly disappated. The bamboo danced all afternoon in the wind gusts. I watched two crimson cardinals ride the bamboo branches like a carnival ride, their little legs latched tightly on the thin branches, feathers ruffled by the wind, waiting to fly away when the wind calmed.

Songbirds were all over the yard today enjoying the feeders and the warm sunshine. A large flock of goldfinches covered the ground, the bird feeders, and the limbs of the old oak tree. When I opened the front door to take Penelope for a walk I saw them take flight and heard the beats of their black, white tipped wing feathers. All of the wind chimes were banging out raucous mad tunes with the help of the blustery wind. I could hear the tumultuous yard symphony in the lady den.

Been watching Bonanza this week. Watched Hoss Cartwright cry yesterday when he found Margie on her death bed with a baby. I cried with him, and today I cried as Little Joe lost his love, Laura, the day before their wedding. I’ve seen those episodes many times and I still cry every time. Don’t know why those Cartwright men couldn’t keep their women. Some how death always found them. Guess the script writers thought a happy marriage would change the show. Guess the same with Matt Dillon not hanging his hat up at Kitty’s place. Maybe that’s why we kept watching, waiting for him to hang his hat there.

Turned my chair around in the lady den late afternoon and observed the sunset pageant from beginning to end, watching the stage light up and watching the stage go dark. The sun, dressed as a blinding, bright yellow, beaming beacon, took stage when the sunset began, walking along the skyline in her gold sequined gown. Mother Nature brushed the horizon in colors of ripe peaches, her watercolor brush strokes mingling into the turquoise blue of the evening’s gleaming sky. As the sun walked lower, the peach colors became dark as the flames of a raging wildfire, growing more red as the darkness crept up. The sunset of wildfires was put out by the darkness of day’s end. Father Sky kissed the sun goodnight in her peach cloud covers and hurried off to help the moon and stars wake the clear cold night. Another day ending on this beautiful planet we call Earth. Another day promised for tomorrow. Don’t take that day for granted.

Do you think people take life for granted, not realizing to wake up with breath is a gift we receive every day from God. We lay our heads down at night just assuming we’ll wake up again in the morrow and hop on the busy train of our every day lives. We have so much to be thankful for and need to remember when we say our prayers to be thankful for our many blessings. We lay our worries in God’s hands and don’t remember to thank him for taking the weight of these worries off our shoulders. We need to think of God’s grace and our prayers as a way to make our hearts tuned to God. It’s hard to live a Christian life in today’s world, so many temptations around us to turn us away from God.

Hebrews 13:16 says, “Make sure you don’t take things for granted and go slack in working for the common good; share what you have with others.” We give God pleasure when we worship and make sacrifices in our lives, when we share with those in need. We can worship in our kitchens, our places of work, and on the streets. I think sometimes I’m worshipping when I’m enjoying God’s creations from my front porch swing.

Life is so fragile. God has given us life and light and love and a beautiful world. Let’s not take these gifts for granted.

“All the wonderful things in life are so simple that one is not aware of their wonder until they are beyond touch.” — Frances Gunther