Jane Austen wrote, “To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment.” Her words describe how my day has passed, sitting in the porch swing enjoying of the peace and tranquillity of a beautiful blue sky day. The March winds have been soft cool breezes pinging pleasant melodies on the wind chime pipes. Even Penelope has been content napping in her playpen. The cardinals have visited the bird feeders all day and Fatty has stuffed himself with sunflower seeds on the bird camera feeder. It has been as Austen wrote, “a fine day.”

I’ve been intrigued by a fat little wren today. He’s the only wren around and has been singing his heart out for two days. I wake up to his arias every morning. Can’t tell if he’s love sick or claiming his territory but he is so loud to be so little. So handsome in his suit of brown sugar plumage, his little tail always at attention. Wrens symbolize intelligence and resilience. They are so curious and fearless, too. William Blake wrote, “He who shall hurt the little wren shall never be beloved by men.”

Walked Penelope at dusk so I could watch the sun lay her head down tonight. She kissed the day goodnight on a subdued but lovely rendering of sunset as Mother Nature’s watercolor brushes painted the horizon with a pale palette of coconut and aqua shades. “The night walked down the sky with the moon in her hand” (Frederic Knowles) and extinguished the orangey red wildfire blazing across the horizon. Darkness captured the twilight as the moon and twinkling stars took their places in the night sky. “Twilight — a time of pause when nature changes her guard. All living things would fade and die from too much light or too much dark, if twilight were not,” Howard Thurman. That thought never crossed my mind but it’s interesting to think about and research tells me living things can die from excessive light and total darkness.

I love the night sky, too. I watch for Father Sky to pin the silver stars and hang his luminous moon in the purple canopy of the darkness. When I gaze up at the night sky I feel how tiny we are in the universe. I sometimes think of the wise men following the bright star to kneel by baby Jesus. There is beauty and hope in the night sky and I marvel that the stars always shine with the moon but are hidden by the sun’s bright light. The daytime sky would be black like night and the sun bright like a spotlight if the Earth had no atmosphere. I know the day’s sky will follow the night’s sky. Each day Mother Nature and Father Sky compare notes and decided how to sketch and watercolor the day, getting down to business with God’s permission to color the heavens above us. Every day’s sky is different and I love the wonder of that.

I ran across the best paragraphs about aging today written by Judy Dench. Someone asked her about being old and she writes of the freedom of being old and how freeing it is. I can relate to every sentence specially the line, “If I want to cry for a lost love I will.” Being older we can stay up late, walk proudly into the ocean in our grandmother bathing suits, not worry about gray hair or a few extra pounds. Being older means we have experienced heart aches. We appreciate all life has to offer. We eat the ice cream after supper, the cookies, and the Hershey kisses. We look at our gray hair in the mirror in the morning and see our smile hasn’t aged. I’m enjoying this stage of my life. Guess I am old and that’s okay with me.

Judy Dench writes — “Now to answer the question honestly, I can say I like being old because old age makes me wiser and freer! I know I’m not gonna live forever, But while I’m here, I’m going to live by my own laws, those of my heart. I’m not going to regret what wasn’t, nor worry about what will be. The time that remains, I will simply love life as I did until today, the rest I’ll leave to God.”

“Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.” — Franz Kafka