Today was a good day! Oldest sister-in-law came for a porch visit and we sat in the swing together and laughed and laughed about the silly things we do as we age. My dearest friend, two weeks retired, has already experienced a debit card debacle and the calendar fog of not knowing the day of the week. She’s fitting in well to the retirement club. She hasn’t lost her glasses but when her new ones come, I bet she’ll experience the “where are my glasses and the oh, they’re on my head” moment. Everyday at my house!

Oldest sister-in-law needed help with her phone. This is the truth…and I’m still laughing, hours later, and her phone is still deleting, hours later, the 22,826 emails in her In mailbox and 14,000 plus emails in her Junk folder! She had no idea she needed to delete mail from those folders. Oldest sister-in-law and her email escapade has just filled my afternoon with laughter. I’m not laughing at her but with her. Ain’t it fun to get old!

My Florida friend, a sweet cousin, bought my dearest friend and me a lottery ticket for the 1.10 billion lottery payout. My friend won four dollars…me none. But boy did we enjoy taking about spending that money. We had lots of conversations about our beach houses. I wanted a house with a porch swing. She wanted a house with two guest houses and a cook. We laughed and laughed as we planned spending our millions. Laughter is such a precious gift. Genesis 21:6 reads, “…God has brought me laughter. All who hear about this will laugh with me.”

God wants us to enjoy life and its laughter. “A good laugh is sunshine in the house,” William Makepeace Thackeray. Scripture states in Ecclesiastes 8:15, “So I recommend having fun, because there is nothing better for people in this world than to eat, drink, and enjoy life. That way they will experience some happiness along with all the hard work God gives them under the sun.” God likes to laugh, too. Psalms 2:4 states, “But the one who rules in heaven laughs.” I’m wondering what amuses God. He created us in his image so maybe our foolish antics amuse him. Maybe he laughs at those who try to thwart his teachings, those who plot against him, knowing it’s futile. Psalms 37 tells us “the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that their day is coming.” When life starts to get cloudy remember this verse from Job, “He will once again fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.”

The sunset was so beautiful tonight, a painting in hard candy colors. I think Mother Nature eats Jolly Rancher candy, keeping the candies in an exquisite crystal bowl on her antique oak buffet resting on the crest of the horizon. Tonight as she began getting her watercolor palette ready she grabbed a handful of the candies and flung them into the heavens to color her sunset. As a watermelon colored wildfire raged across the horizon from her fire stix flavored candy, Mother Nature mixed the colors of the candies flavored blue raspberry, green apple, strawberry-watermelon, pineapple, and peach and expertly touched her paint brushes to the sky canvas and rendered a magnificent sunset.

As the cicada choir opened their sheet music folder and started singing, the sun walked down the horizon in a beaming formal gown in mango candy colors. Father Sky was dressed in his fireman bunker, ready to put out the wildfires of sunset, escorting the sun down the pageant stage, carrying his firefighter hat and gloves, clunked down the stairs in his steel toe boots. As the couple stepped off the stage, the twilight paled and dusk welcomed the cool night. Father Sky kissed the sun goodnight, turned on the night, and flung the moon and stars high into the dark heavens. The night settles with a calm sigh as the sun sleeps and dreams of her glorious rising.

“A good laugh is sunshine in the house.” — William Makepeace Thackeray