“Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one,” Dr. Seuss. That’s good way to look at life and if you are retired it’s a good motto. Today was a beautiful day, lots of sunshine and pretty clouds, a yard full of songbirds. Father Sky sketched his clouds gathered together in shades of cigar smoke gray and blue and vanilla. Several times throughout the day he colored the clouds bellies purple but they never dropped any rain showers in my yard. The just waffed across the skyline and others took their places.

When I opened the door to take Penelope for her walk this morning, four squirrels were hanging off the feeders shoveling seeds in their mouths. They can empty a feeder quickly if I don’t scare them off. Guess I’m going to buy a bag of peanuts or some squirrel corn and see if I can keep them away from the feeders, feeding them on the other side of the yard. I’ve changed Fatty’s name to Fattina since I found out he was a she. Had a few more little brown squirrels in the yard today and nobody tried to run them off as the gray squirrels usually do. Everybody was too busy eating to do any chasing.

I was sitting in the swing looking at a bird guide this afternoon and when I glanced over at at the bird feeders I saw a large red-headed woodpecker sitting on one of the suet baskets. They are such handsome birds. The males and females look just alike, large red velvet heads, big chisel beaks, snow white bellies, and white patches on their inky black backs. Haven’t seen one since last year. I’ve been hearing his drum solos join in the yard symphonies for several days so I knew he was around.

I was looking forward to sunset this afternoon, anticipating a beautiful watercolor painting from Mother Nature’s brushes. Father Sky kept the stage hidden by his cloud curtains. He invited his cloud friends to watch him in the pageant of sunset and Mother Nature frowned on how they were dressed. She picked up her palette and painted pink bow ties and aqua buttons down shirts on the clouds as they gathered in their grey sport coats to watch the sun set. Her brush strokes were soft but firm and shaded the clouds so prettily as the sun stepped on the stage of golden light. Mother Nature brushed shades of golden wildflower honey across the horizon as Father Sky took the arm of the sun and walked her regally down the pageant runway.

Father Sky and the sun were dressed in matching sterling silver creations, Father Sky attired in a silver linen business suit with aqua pocket square, the sun dressed formally in a silver beaded gown gathered in the back with an aqua bow. The handsome couple pulled the daylight behind them as they walked down the horizon and turned off the day’s light as they kissed goodnight. Father Sky went to wake the new moon, who had turned off his lights for the day, dressing in his black suit for the night pageant. The twinkling stars and Father Sky helped the dark moon to the pageant stage and the night formally began as the day ended.

I looked for lightning bugs as the twilight faded but didn’t see any. I can remember many nights running around with my little brother, glass pint Mason jars in our hands, catching fireflies in the jars. My parents would be on the porch here talking quietly and we’d sit on the porch steps and look at our jars full of little yellow blinking stars. Sometime we’d take them in the house and put the jars on the table between our twin beds. Just like lots of critters in our world the American firefly is listed as “Crucially Endangered.” So sad future generations of children night not experience the excitement of catching jars of them.

I had a lightning bug in my bedroom the other night after I got in bed and turned off the lights. Penelope stood up on the foot of the bed and watched it forever trying to figure out what it was. Next trip to see the grandchildren we’re going lightning bug hunting. There are so many beautiful quotes about fireflies. This is one of my favorites. “Fireflies are stars that could not journey to the sky,” Michel Bassey Johnson.

My cousin sent me some quotes today and I enjoyed reading them all. This one made me laugh and think of Truman Capote. “Breathe, darling. This is just a chapter, not your whole story,” S.C. Lourie.

So to all my friends, y’all breathe, darlings. Tomorrow is just another day in your story. We measure life not by time but by beautiful moments. Add some beauty to your moments tomorrow and appreciate all the blessings of this wondrous Earth. God is so good!

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.” — Maya Angelou.