Beautiful day today the Lord has made. Father Sky colored his morning sky blue with fluffy white clouds. Later he picked up his pastels again and sketched purple and gray thunderstorm clouds, cooled the air down to the seventies, clapped some thunder and added a few lightning bolts, but only let a few sprinkles of rain fall in my yard. Hope the rain showers will come tonight.

I perched on the swing this morning watching songbirds on the feeders. I saw a large red-bellied wood pecker, his red cap so bright, his black and white checkered sport coat so pristine. He loves the peanut butter suet feeder. I saw my faithful cardinals, the lonely towhee, the doves, the wrens, the purple finches, one catbird, and Mr. Downy Woodpecker. Can’t forget the blue heron that flew over my house today! So handsome, traveling comfortably with his slow wide-wing flapping, his skinny legs hanging down. I wondered where he had been and where he was going. You never see a heron in a hurry.

Only saw the one little brown squirrel, guess Fatty was too full of sunflower seeds from his July 4th celebration to scamper around the oak tree. The chipmunks have returned, running across the porch and under Penelope’s play pen. She slept through their antics or she would have had a fit to get out of the pen and chase them. A daytime firecracker scared her so we retreated to our air conditioning and quote books.

I went outside after supper to perch in the porch swing and enjoy watching the joyous cavalcade of the sun setting. Such a pleasant evening for porch sitting since the rain clouds had cooled the air. Tonight Mother Nature rendered a magnificent watercolor painting, a feast for my eyes in sky burst colors of rhubarb red and watermelon pink, brush stroked all the way down the horizon on my street. The surrounding clouds gathered to watch the pageant were pulled part like cotton candy and painted in pale watercolors of pink and aqua and orange.

The sun had stood earlier, bright and white, beaming on the crest of the horizon, waiting for Father Sky to take her hand and escort her down the runway. She was dressed in a formal gown of sterling silver taffeta, long white gloves pulled up her arms, diamond tiara on her golden head, glass slippers on her feet. Father Sky was dressed in a gray linen suit with watermelon colored pocket square, a diamond stick pen holding his rhubarb plaid tie in place. His highly polished black leather wing-tip shoes caught the sun’s rays with each footstep. They made a handsome couple as they began their walk down the horizon, a benediction to the day’s light.

Father Sky kissed the sun goodnight and twilight came smoothly on the echoes of faint firecrackers, sighing softly as the kaleidoscope of the sunsets’ colors faded away into the quiet of the night. Father Sky cleared the clouds away on the velvet darkness of the night sky and hung the crescent moon and the twinkling stars to guide the night travelers. The day has gone to sleep and the night wakes in its glory.

There are so many glorious gifts and secrets from God in this wondrous world and the majority of us never have the time to slow down to look for them or to see them. The world just spins too fast. When I was in the working world I never had the time, either, to enjoy watching the sunsets form or the butterflies warming their wings in the summer sun. I never noticed the intricate beauty of the tiniest wildflowers or saw the little pockets of pollen on the bumble bee’s legs.

I had never noticed the myriad of colors in the clouds of an overcast sky, never noticed the beauty of a female cardinal’s plumage. I never heard a yard symphony composed of raindrops and bird songs and wind chime tintinnabulations. I wish I could share these gifts with Chief. My retirement has brought so many, many more opportunities to enjoy God’s gifts and I’m grateful for each gift and each day.

Enjoy every moment of your children’s lives and see them and their children as gifts from a loving God. “Live the life you love and love the life you live,” Bob Marley. Life is so magical and time passes so quickly. We’re never promised tomorrow. Give God thanks for each and every day. And find time to see God’s glorious gifts.

“And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.” — Ronald Dahl