The most wonderful thing about retirement to me is laying my head down at night and knowing tomorrow has no agenda. The day is mine and I can choose to make the most of every moment. I had a wonderful day today. I’m so grateful for the life I have, my friends and family, my little dog, and all the beautiful critters in my yard. I know I’m blessed and I try to not take life for granted.

I know I’m fortunate and I’m grateful for my blessings but I realized we might need to stop counting our blessings and be a blessing to someone else. God says we need to treat people as we want to be treated. We should live by The Golden Rule as scripture says in Matthew 7:12, “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” Just a genuine thank you or a smile can change the day’s outlook. The world can be a cruel and thoughtless place. Everyone in a hurry to go no where, impatient in the check out lines, spewing hateful words at those of us who choose to march to our own drum beats, living a life different from theirs. We need to learn to respect each other and agree to disagree.

We need to care about one another and try to understand each other. Today only happens once in a lifetime. “Tomorrow is a hope, not a promise,” Debra Anastasia. We need to make the most of every day because tomorrow is not promised. Try to make conscious decisions that make your life happy and fulfilled. Make the most of all the opportunities God puts before you and thank God in prayer and thanksgiving for even the simplistic of blessings.

As I sit here now writing and pondering in the lady den, I can see the beautiful sunset, the sun a blinding beam of white light, sliding down a golden champagne colored horizon. Father Sky will need some sunglasses to kiss the sun goodnight this day. The silvery celestial moon greeted Penelope and me today on our first morning walk. I love finding the moon awake and all aglow in the morning hours. He contrasts so beautifully against the azure fall sky. He was really pinned high today so he must have been getting ready for bed. Took Penelope for her last walk tonight and moon was so handsome, posed in the purple night sky, his waxing gibbous self luminous and bright, almost full of himself. The moon was holding court alone waiting for his twinkling stars to take their places on the night pageant stage.

We can compare our life to a magnificent sunset, that glorious ending to another wondrous day. Sunsets don’t last forever and troubling times don’t last forever, either. “A sunset, like a life has its own story to tell, of beginnings and endings and joy and farewell. The vibrant hues, that streak across the sky, are like the memories that stay with us as time flies by,” Unknown. Sunsets help us appreciate the simple beauty in life’s small every day moments, powerful reminders of the beauty and mystery of life. “The sunset rays stretch out like a last embrace, before it retreats into its slumbering place,” Poet Sarah.

Each of us has a story to tell that stretches across the years of our lifetime. Some of us have bright sunny days ending with a glorious sunset of wondrous watercolors. Others of us stumble through life, looking for light and love, searching for something to grasp to help us hold on to a life line. “God’s silence is not God’s absence, so keep going,” Gugulethu Ndlovu. God is waiting for us to grasp his hand and walk with Christian faith into his eternal kingdom.

“I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands, that I still possess.”— Martin Luther