Pink of the winter sky

Yesterday, early evening while stirring the pot of home made "refrigerator soup" simmering on the stove, the  sky outside our kitchen window caught my eye.  There was so much pink.  I could not miss that, so I donned boots &  jacket, camera and captured some of it.  
I have not ever seen this coloration in the winter sky here in MN.  Sky blue pink!   It was beautiful and outside it was quiet, hushed, briskly cold, but so clear. It cleared my head and vision.



Granddaughter was snugged in downstairs  watching football with Grandpa Jerry.  I am too fidgety to sit through a play off game when I don't have a favorite team playing.  Janine, granddaughter,  arrived Wednesday from CA with a head cold.  I fear it  is a virus from  her description that it  left and returned.   So we've been doctoring with Vicks and Nyquil.  It is sounding better but still not gone; I would have had a medical visit about this with all the concern of  H1N1, etc.  and especially before flying, but then that's me.   So this has stifled her visit somewhat.  Of course it is winter in MN and we don't have much activity; she did come to see the snow and experience winter.  Well here it is.   I am disappointed that she's not able to muster more energy, but hope she sheds this before her return flight Friday. 

Have been quandrizing (my word)  with this visit with Janine for several reasons which have manifested themselves clearly this trip.  Since her last trip here in April, she seems regressed into more dependency, less reaching out or experiencing as a 19 year old  could be doing, sticking with her chosen only boyfriend, and  tightening the ties to Mom & Dad's apron strings.  I wonder how long this can last?  Will she ever become her own person?  There is still time enough.  Her responses to questions at times evoke,  "my mom says...."  That's better than "John says...." I suppose, but I wish this girl woud grow some independent gumption and begin to have her very own opinions, views, circles, likes, friends, you name it. Isn't that one purpose of education, to create a  drive for independence and the foundation to chose wisely?  Maybe that's passe now too!   It's one thing to raise and shelter but too much and it cripples.   I hope she does not trade parental control for John's control.   I cannot understand any of this. 

But there is always hope and the pink sky seemed  to be God's benevolence shining, "G'wan outside, breathe the fresh air, enjoy it and let it go!"   And that wonderful old verse from Corinthians, "be not dismayed, by reason of this great multitude, for the battle is not your's but the Lord's"    That verse came clearly to me outside in  18 degrees appreciating the pink sky.  I remembered when I received that verse at a Christmas Eve candlelight service in Fair Oaks, almost 40 years ago.  I have kept it to  bolster me at times and can hold fast to it.  Faith is a good thing that allows us to let go and trust. 

Prone as I am to signs and intuition and guidance, I interpret this glorious pink  sky to mean, let it be and let ME.  That's pretty good advice for someone who has no control over this situation.  Besides the last thing I want is control!  No way!  All we can continue to do is provide the seeds, exposure and hope.   Hope that there is another pink sky somewhere.  Pink sky at night, sailor's delight; pink sky at morning sailor take warning....