“Blue skies, smilin’ at me, Nothin’ but blue skies do I see.” I love that song and I can hear Ella Fitzgerald singing those lyrics as I sit in the porch swing enjoying the day’s morning coming alive. The sky this morning is beautiful, a clear and cloudless September azure blue. The birds are singing and flocking to the feeders and the butterflies are dancing and flittering on the zinnia stages. Another glorious day in my little world…hot like summer is supposed to be but that just makes the sweet ice tea in my Mason jar that much sweeter.

Had a funny thing happen at Jack’s restaurant this afternoon. I’ve been living here for four and a half years and every time I get chicken finger snacks for me and my youngest son they never put the correct sauces in the bags. Maybe twice I’ve gotten home to find the correct sauces. Yeah, I should have enough sense to look in the bag before I leave the drive through BUT, I always ask the window persons about the sauces AND they always say, “Yes mam, sauce is in the bag.” Sometimes it is, sometimes it’s not!

Today I thought, I’m going to get the right sauces. Gonna be aggressive and firm but kind and courteous. Friendly lady at the window so I told her, “I’ve been living in Roanoke for four and a half years and I’ve never gotten the correct sauces here with my orders.” So she says, “What kind of sauce you want today?” I said, “Two honey mustards, two Jack’s sauce.” She laughs and says, “We’re out of honey mustard but I can give you a pack of mustard and a pack of honey.” We both laughed so I guess that was funny. So I ask for two ranch and two Jack’s sauces. Get home and youngest son says, “Why’s there only one Jack’s sauce?” That my son is the million dollar question I wish I had an answer for.

“Sunrise is the start of something beautiful: the day. Sunset is the start of something beautiful: the night.” — Juansen Dizon

“What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our daily lives,” E.M. Forster. I love that quote. I’m sitting on the porch now, drinking a cup of coffee from my favorite bird pattern cup, watching the dusk cover the earth with its first layer of nighttime. The chimney swifts are performing their aerobatics in mid-air, the cardinals are getting their last bite of sunflower seeds for the night. I think the gloaming might be the prettiest part of the day today. The silence of the earth as she prepares for bed is comforting.

Father Sky just kissed Mother Nature and the sun goodnight and filled the horizon with a blush of the palest pink. The pageant of today’s sunset is muted but magnificent. The marbled sky is faint with gray and blue but the pink blush is creeping up on the horizon and putting rouge on the surrounding clouds. I hope I never lose my enchantment with a sunset. “Every sunset brings the promise of a new dawn,” writesRalph Waldo Emerson.

Life is like a sunset and a sunrise. We know when the sun slides down on the colorful horizon she’ll be back the next day in all her glory. Just as our lives ebb and flow with happiness and disappointment, we know these days won’t last forever. We don’t need to hold on to yesterday’s sunrise. We need to move forward in the sunrises of another day. We need to appreciate the sunsets in our lives and try to not control their colors, accepting ourselves as we truly are, basking in our uniqueness. We don’t have to be the most vibrant color on the spectrum of a glorious sunset. We can be the pale blush that gives peace to the coming darkness. If you’re the flaming red and glowing orange of your life’s sunset, keep it up. Takes all kinds and all colors to make the world go round.

In a way, at this point in my life, I feel like I’m riding off into a beautiful sunset. My life has been filled, and is filled, with genuine deep love, enough tragedy to break me down, and a strong faith that pulls me up when I call on it. I retired four years ago and now I sit comfortably in the sunset of my life, filling my days with family and friends, on my own time and my own schedule. I can be a pale blush in the gloaming or a vibrant purple on Mother Nature’s watercolor brushes. Sunsets show us that the end can be just as beautiful as the beginning.

“There is something magical about the way a sunset can make us feel at peace, grateful, and alive all at once.” — Morgan Harper Nichols