What a YEAR!!

It's been a Year!  I saw beautiful sunrises, watched squirrels beg, followed birds in flight. I walked with my friends around the neighborhood and stopped on the hillside to watch the sun set. I stood on shorelines and watched gulls swoop low.

Friends and family gathered around our table to laugh and eat and reminisce. My worship community is tight and striving to spread peace. I walked in the Peace Walk for the first time in years.

I took a poetry course and wrote some poems! 

I spend a lot of time with my 97 year old Mom, and her struggles to keep her sight. (So far so good!)

And a lot of time with our son and his family and our granddaughter who is as tall as I am, now.

We survived a lot of sad and shocking events in our world this year. Wars in the Middle East, in Africa, in the Ukraine. Forest fires that spread smoke all through North America. Extreme weather. Gun violence. Etc. Etc. yada yada yada.

We DID survive. And where there is Life, there is Hope.

What do you hope for this coming year? Hope means we still have a future.  Here are a few of my hopes:

I hope to use my time more wisely.  I hope to smile more. I hope to write more.

I hope for a cleaner world. I hope to make changes in my lifestyle to bring that cleaner world closer.

I hope for Peace. I hope to spread peace wherever I can.

I hope for Kindness. I hope to be kind in meaningful, measurable ways.

I hope for Truth, Justice and the Global Way*! Almost like Superman! 

I hope you are all happy and healthy and productive in 2024.

Happy New Year!!

*The original quote was "the American Way". But that has different meanings than it did in the 1950's. I have no idea what the Global Way is.  I hope that it will be a truly inclusive, accepting, generous, truthful, hardworking and respectful way of life.

 

Happy 2012!

Here's wishing all of you a wonderful 2012!  I decided that the only resolution I need to make for this new year is this:  I will finish projects that have been hanging around for a while - or get rid of them!

Earth tones, pastels and knock-your-eyes-out red - quite a combination!

Project #1:
To begin, I dug out a bin of crocheted rectangles - a complete underbed storage bin of rectangles approximately 10 inches by 7 inches.  There was a group project I was working on and then the group lost interest - or maybe I did.  I forget.  The problem is that the rectangles are mismatched colors.  What to do???

My shawl/scarf thing - cozy but I won't be wearing this out in public.

I took 17 of the rectangles and pieced together a shawl/scarf sort of thing.  It really is something only a mother could love but it is warm and perfect for watching TV or reading in bed.

Here are a few of the other unfinished projects ahead of me this year:
2. 3 novels - 2 are finished but need rewriting - a LOT of rewriting;
3. Comb through 20 years of Cricket magazine (OK, maybe only 10 years- I am prone to exaggeration) and then find a home for the ones I don't want;
4. 2 quilts - or at least the tops;
5. Figure out what to do with Bill's Mom's china and knicknacks - the pretty ones I have stored away;
6. Find new homes for stuff that is tucked away in the attic and cupboards and that I have forgotten about - like the fire engine red electric wok I never took a shine to;
7. Pare down my personal library to the books I actually use;
8. Figure out how to borrow library books on my Nook;
9.  Write reviews for at least half the books I read and post them on this blog;
10.  And then there is my Advent project - years in the making.  It would be fun to get that off the ground. 

If I finish Project #2- or a third of Project #2 - it will be a banner year indeed.  It's pretty clear that I will not run out of things to do in 2012.

I hope that your new year is full of wonderful things and people who love you!