Happy New Year

   Isn't it amazing how one thing leads to the next?  From a February post, Pink Flowers or Undies, I came up with the idea to buy flowers for $5 and photograph them.  What fun I had and this winter I'll continue searching for inexpensive flowers to add cheerful beauty to life and photograph the posies every which way.

I traveled about Ohio...a few days in Cleveland...

A July weekend in Toledo...

Wandering the backroads...

There were sunsets...

And sunflowers....

A new garden after many years...

Canning...

And Cookies

Oh no...everything wasn't always lemony sunshine...

A broken arm

Grieving a lost pet

Still light shone...

Above

And below

Everywhere there was beauty...

Inside

And out...

2010 was a good year of memories made with family and friends. There were ups, downs, and lessons learned.  There were times of confusion, but the celebrations outweighed the frustration.  And now...it's time to tuck this year away and welcome in a new one, fresh and clean awaiting pens, paper, the camera lens, words, and the imagination creating life one day at a time.  

I'll catch a fairy in my hand and make a wish before releasing her to the winds of fate...

 My wish is for each of you to gather in all the joys that await you in life...

I wish you laughter with family and friends, old and new

I wish you success in leading a life of bliss

I wish you prosperity

May you always find a a loaf of bread and a glass of wine at your table

I hope nature, from the lowliest insect to the highest mountain, thrills you

May you find beauty in simplicity and enough imagination for the complex

I wish that love would kiss each of you on the cheek everyday

Together, I hope we strive for peace and remember the dark shadowy corners of the world  

Dreams for a New Year

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of [her] dreams, and endeavors to live the life which [she] imagined, [she] will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”                ~ Henry David Thoreau

I’m going to take Mr. Thoreau’s advice and march in the direction of my dreams trying to live the life I’ve imagined. And when I do I too shall meet success when least expected. Before I begin this new journey, I must take stock of the year that flew by on swift wings.

I shall consider where I’ve been, where I’m going, and where I want to go. I must review the year in my mind, embracing the memories of family, friends, laughter, and sometimes sorrows. I ask myself…Did I treat every person I met with respect and a gentle smile or was I too busy living that I forgot to be grateful, to be humble, to be loving? Did I sow some seeds of friendship along the way or disenchant old friends that deserve the best I have to offer? Did I plant a garden of flowers and tend it with fortitude mixed with joy or did I allow weeds and ill winds to choke the beauty? These are the questions that must be answered so I can begin the story anew on a clean slate

Once I have come to terms with 2009, I can begin my journey toward 2010 dreams. Whether you dream of gardens, flowers, vegetables, family, a life-change, a new love, or a new location, may you capture your dream in the New Year and hold it fast.

Mark Twain reminds us, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.

So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.

Explore.

Dream.

Discover."

                                                                                                                                  

Happy New Year!