Today has been a beautiful day in so many ways. I love mornings like this, no plans, no agenda. Ate a bowl of watermelon for breakfast sitting on the porch enjoying all the birds and watching the wispy clouds float by on the blue horizon. The breeze was playing a beautiful whisper in the wind, softly pinging each individual wind chime pipe. Such a pleasant quiet symphony. Made me smile and again count my blessings for waking up to live another day on this wonderful planet Earth. I leaned back in the swing, my legs stretched out on the swing cushion, bowed my head and said a quick prayer of thanks. I know I’m a lucky old girl living a charmed life.

Each day hold so many wonders. If only we had the time to slow down and enjoy them all. Family responsibilities are so important and with school starting there’s not enough hours in the day for young families. Mother Nature is so splendiferous and doesn’t wait for us to enjoy her beauty. She paints her exquisite sunsets and she and God set the creatures free to roam and fly around without a thought of us enjoying them. Mother Nature scents the air with gardenias and magnolia blooms and plays the musical sounds of the birds and coyotes and cicadas and crickets. She’s really quite an old gal!

Early evening I head back to the porch to wait for the clouds to change colors. I watched Mother Nature dressing the sun and painting the clouds for dusk’s sunset pageant. It’s amazing how quickly the clouds are transformed with different colors and how fleeting it is. Only lasts a few seconds some days. Tonight I watched a cloud shaped just like a large hand and immediately thought of God reaching out and welcoming someone to heaven. The cloud was huge, the hand was open, waiting for another hand to grasp it. Made me think of sitting by Chief’s bedside when he was dying, thinking of Rosie reaching out for his hand, welcoming him home to heaven.

All that beauty the sunsets provide and most don’t have the time to stop and marvel at the beautiful colors. I didn’t use to enjoy the sunsets but I watch every day now, thankful to see another day ending with God’s promise of tomorrow. John Lennon said, “When you do something noble and beautiful and nobody noticed, do not be sad. For the sun every morning is a beautiful spectacle and yet most of the audience still sleep.” I think this winter I’m going to turn into an early bird and watch the glorious sunrise each day.

I’ve fallen in love again with the day’s tranquil twilight. Never seen it more beautiful than tonight. As I perched in the swing, I watched the sun slip below the horizon, listening as the twilight whispered words of love to the earth and brought the stars and the moon out from their hiding places. Twilight is always a magical time, the earth glowing in a golden light, the remnants of the day’s love making with the sun’s light, silhouetting the old oaks and magnolias in jet black. The cicadas tune their musical instruments, loudly then softly, and coax the little lightning bugs out from under their leaf covers to be stars in the landscape’s darkness. The muted colors of twilight are so pretty and the earth is still and silent, getting ready for slumber and dreams of God’s magnificent sunrise. Henry Ward Beecher says, “Twilight drops her curtain down and pins it with a star.”

I think of twilight as the beginning of day’s death, a slow demise to darkness leading to the beauty of the awakening dawn and glorious sunrise of another day. God has given us so many wonders in this life. He had to consciously think of how to make the day’s ending and the day’s beginning wondrous. We don’t need proof of the Lord, we can see it in his colorful handiwork. Psalm 113:3 reads, “From the rising of the sun until the going down of the same the Lord’s name is to be praised.” The sun comes up each morning as proof of God’s creation of earth. Each sunrise is a time of hope and renewal. Doesn’t matter what happened today, tomorrow is a gift of a new day, a new beginning full of hope.

Isaiah 60:1 says, “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.” God wants us to rise each day full of his glory, ready to greet the new day with his love in our hearts. Just like we can count on the sun rising everyday we can count on God’s faithfulness. The beauty of each sunrise shows us God’s greatness and as the sun’s rays spread across the sky we’re reminded of God’s light that guides us through the darkness. “God is always seeking you. Every sunset. Every clear blue sky. Each ocean wave. The starry hosts of night. He blankets each new day with the invitation, ‘I am here,’” Louie Giglio.

Psalm 118:24 reads, “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” We should be gracious to God, thankful and happy for each day. Each day is a gift to be opened with prayers and thanksgiving. Love the life you live.

“Every day is a gift from God, no matter how old we are.” Billy Graham