Today was so pretty. Azure blue sky, white fluffy clouds, kissed on their crowns by the sun’s rays. Missed the sunset but the sun was a beautifully colored ripe peach resting on the horizon in a pale cranberry twilight as the sunset began. Father Sky woke the moon in the cold clear black velvet of the night sky and pinned the bejeweled stars to guide the night travelers. Another wondrous day with the grandchildren has been put to bed.

Wednesday afternoon I filled up all the bird feeders and washed the bird baths so the birdies would be taken care of while I was gone. I washed the solar fountains in my bird baths and one of them was clogged up with a huge slug. I hate to say it but I hate slugs. Stepped on one years ago when I was barefoot and squished it between my toes! They always get in my urns of porch flowers and eat the blooms if I don’t put snail killer pellets around them. As much as I hate slugs for the damage they do to my garden plants, they’re part of the Earth’s ecosystem and serve as decomposers and as food for lots of animals like birds and turtles and toads. Snakes eat them, too, so Balthazar, my big resident king snake, better get back to work, or he’s going to meet my shovel blade.

Thinking about the slugs made me think of a few things I wish had not climbed the planks of the ark. Mosquitoes should have stayed away and been swatted off the ramp. But they, too, have a purpose as pollinators and food for fish and birds. I would also have been happy with the roaches not catching a ride. But they, too, serve a purpose as natural composters and are vital for the nitrogen cycle of the earth. If the cockroaches die lots of our plants die, too. Guess they can stay, just don’t crawl on my porch at twilight when my bare feet are resting on the porch tile under the swing.

Had a kettle of vultures circle my great-grandmother’s house right before dusk on Wednesday. I’ve never seen more than a dozen circling around the roofs in my neighborhood and I always count them before they get too high in the sky. The vultures were close to the rooftops, like the black winds of a tornado, circling up a invisible cork screw in the sky, riding the wind thermals. I counted 60 before I stopped counting and ran to get my phone for a photo. By the time I got back they were too high to really photograph well.

Read vultures are called a kettle when they ride the wind current and don’t flap their wings. Course vultures serve their purpose too. They are scavengers and clean up carrion and road kill. Another interesting fact is they poop on their feet to cool off when it’s hot. Smile! They’re friendly and gregarious but I have enough friends, thanks. Course I could find a quote that works with buzzards — “Don’t play dead with a vulture. That’s exactly what they want,” —Kevin Nealon. I love quotes and I honestly think if you researched long enough you can find a quote about any subject.

I was thinking about God shutting the door on the ark and I see him struggling to push the last chubby elephant far enough into the ark to completely shut the door and bolt it. When God shuts a door in our lives he is usually preparing us for a new path through a new door he’s opened. A blocked door we’re struggling to open is often a stopping place for contemplation and prayers. God has placed a road block on our path to give us time to think, time to avoid making a mistake on our chosen path. Revelation 2:7 reads “What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.”

God closes doors to help us prepare for what comes next, to teach us to pray and be faithful, to trust in the new direction our life is taking. God opens the doors of salvation and eternal life for us but we’re responsible to walk faithfully through these doors. Jesus said “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved,” John 10:9.

“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” — Alexander Graham Bell