Sunset of My Life...

Consider the beauty of a sunset...
The whole sky changes colors from blue and white to grey to pink to salmon to red.  The eye beholds its magnificence!  There is no sound, so there is nothing to hear except the beating of your heart and the singing of the birds; you cannot touch it so there is nothing to feel  except joy; and you cannot smell it.  But your heart delights in its beauty and you snap a photo in your mind (or physically) for your memory.

Those who stay long enough will experience that last sliver of light as the sun slips beyond the horizon and out of sight.  And with its passing, it leaves a promise that it will return one day.  It says to us, "I will return on the morrow."

The year 2017 is coming to a close, and like the sunsets I have viewed, I pause and consider the beauty of the past year.  I have experienced pain and sorrow; I have experienced family delights; I have given up a portion of my independence; and I have grown a little older.

I have grown, I have fallen (literally), and I have mellowed with the experiences of this past year.  God gives us experience for just these purposes.  And he tests us and tries us to make sure we are ready for better things to come.  Like the iron ore that is put into the fire, shaped and bent and hardened, our lives are shaped and bent and strengthened.  God works His wonders through our lives.  We cannot see what He sees, and sometimes it is so very hard to realize that "this is for your own good!"  Only He knows the outcome.

I am experiencing the sunset of my life.  I'm sure there must be some beauty there, but some days it is hard just to get out of bed and get moving.  My hair has turned nearly white; my eyes are dim; my ears don't hear as sharply as they used to; and my bones and joints have an ache to them that sometimes slows me down.  Simple tasks, like getting in and out of a car, find me moving with such deliberation that patience must prevail.

One day, like the sunset and like another year's end, I will be facing the promise of tomorrow, but not yet.  The sun will return; a New Year will arise; and I shall return again with that same promise that "I will return on the morrow.

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I'm sure I will see quite a few more sunsets in my life and I will see a number of years begin and end before I face that last sliver of light fade from my life.  And so, for now, I will enjoy the many sunsets to come...whether or not they are on the ocean or the desert or the mountains...they are all so beautiful.

Forgive my rambling.  Just an old woman alone with her thoughts as 2017 comes to an end and I am wondering what 2018 will bring.

                                             HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ONE AND ALL!
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