I’m so grateful I can still look at the world through a child’s eyes. The eyes of children are always full of wonder at the Lord’s creations, excited to be alive with life, knowing there is magic to be found. It’s so hard to hold on to the magic of childhood as the responsibilities of life and family take over. We have a hard time finding time to “stop and smell the roses.” Life is full of wonder and beauty and if you don’t believe in magic you’ll never find it. God doesn’t want us to just exist in this world. He wants us to experience life with joy and wonder. We can recapture the glittery eyes of childhood when we take time to see the beauty in the world.

Fall is in full swing and darkening her days earlier each evening. I heard the migrating geese coming tonight and I turned off the stove and ran out just like child to watch them fly over. They tickle me talking to each other, their honks announcing they’re passing by. Maybe they are counting off to make sure everyone is accounted for. Research says they honk to stay in formation, to encourage tired members, to alert for potential threats. The glorious geese winging their way through the magic of twilight thrills me. Even Penelope stops to watch them. During favorable conditions the geese can travel 1500 miles in a single day but daily distance is usually 400 to 600 miles averaging 40 miles an hour. That’s a lot of honking and wing flapping. I’ll be honest, a few honks would not inspire me to fly 1500 miles in a day. The geese remind me of a favorite quote from Roald Dahl. “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.”

I find magic in the fall landscape, in the sunsets, in the little songbirds, the magical curiosity of my grandchildren’s eyes. Life can be full of magical moments but we have to believe and have faith to be blessed with these moments. We need to open our eyes to all the daily wonders from God. God is good and his goodness surrounds us. He holds the whole wondrous world in his hands.

I had a few magical moments today. I saw a limb of oak leaves kissed bright yellow in the midst of the water oak’s green branches. All day I kept reminding myself to take a photo before dark. Every time I went in the kitchen today my eyes were drawn to the side door and the view of those sun kissed leaves in a sea of green branches. I captured a photo late afternoon. I love it when Mother Nature brushes the trees with her autumn watercolors.

Walked Penelope at dusk and the sky was perfectly beautiful, a magnificent setting of richly hued Siberian amethyst colored clouds gathered tightly, holding hands, hiding the setting sun. Father Sky kissed the sun goodnight in the jewel setting of the dark clouds, waking the moon and stars and hung the twinkling stars in the inky night sky, shining down like tiny flashlight beams. I stood on the back deck a few minutes near mid-night and looked at the moon filtering down through the bamboo leaves, so pretty. Genesis 1:16 tells us, “God made two great lights — the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.” These two lights give us so much beauty and magic each day.

If we live a positive life we see a magical rainbow of colors in our lives but if we’re negative we see the colors of the storm clouds. Just like the sky would be plain without clouds, our lives would be boring it we all had the same behavior and same waves of thoughts. We all have our faults and idiosyncrasies and things that make us different but when we work together we make a beautiful sunset out of the clouds of our life.

Do you ever wonder what the purpose of life is? Maybe it’s not happiness. Maybe it’s usefulness. Maya Angelou said, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” Most of us do the best we can. We don’t have to be perfect. No one expects us to be so we shouldn’t expect them to be.

The Lord requires us “to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly” with him. We don’t have to change the world just help make it a better world by our actions and deeds.

“Fight for the things that you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.” — Ruth Bader Ginsburg