Happy New Year!

"Cheers to a New Year and another chance for us to get it right" - Oprah Winfrey

I took these pictures this morning. I wanted to remember what the last day of 2011 looked like. The sun is actually shining through the thin clouds and it is very still and quiet, except for the birds. They are very talkative today.

Here is what they are saying:

"In the New Year, may your right hand always be stretched out in friendship, never in want."

Irish New Year Toast

These are my 'Glacier Pansies'. They are blooming their little hearts out. Even when it snows. All winter I have beautiful flowers.

It's important to surround yourself with beauty. Even if it is only a tiny pot of pansies.

Have you made any New Year's Resolutions yet?

"Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each New Year find you a better man" - Benjamin Franklin 

I like to look back on the old year and think about what lessons I have learned. Some people like to put everything behind them. I like to think back before moving on. I need to process things slowly. To put things in perspective. To see what could have been handled differently. Not to beat myself up. But to learn.

What is the past for, if not to learn?

Every experience makes you wiser if you listen to the message.

Every cloud has a silver lining.

This bright new year is given me

to live each day with zest

to daily grow and try to be

my highest and my best!

William Arthur Ward

This year I want to start a nature journal.

This year I want to exercise regularly and try harder to eat right.

This year I want to have more patience and gratitude towards my loved ones.

This year I want to be more forgiving and kind.

This year I want to start a vegetable garden. Even if it is only very small. For salad greens, maybe.

This year I want to start sewing again. I lost my mojo last year when my Mother died.  

I thought I would start a 'Vision Board'. A place to put my hopes and dreams, my inspiration. I already have the board. Maybe I will decorate it first with some pretty fabric and paint the frame. It's just an old bulletin board I found at a thrift shop. But it's nice and big. I'll put it where I can see it every day. I'll share it with you.

"New Year's Day is every Man's Birthday" - Charles Lamb

Some things I have learned from 2011;

Life is short, always take the high road. It has the best view.

Tell your loved ones how much you love them often, and why.

Take time to play. Being Happy is a choice.

Let the little things go. Don't make mountains out of molehills. It's o.k.

Take time for solitude, rest and reflection.

Don't be a perfectionist. Do what matters most and leave the rest. Make sure you are a priority, too.

Be the one who makes things fun.

These are actually Ninky's rules for life! Lol!

He wanted me to tell you that.

"We will open the book. It's pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day" - Edith Lovejoy Pierce

Wouldn't it be wonderful to have the name, 'Lovejoy?'

I think I will change my name!

My Grandmother's name was Edith. Such a lovely old name. And of course my other Grandmother was Beatrice Euphemie. Don't you love how that flows?

I feel my Grandmothers looking out for me. I think of their lives and how hard it must have been. I wish I could talk to them. I was too young to ask the right questions before they died. I only know they left behind many virtues that have been beacons for their descendants. And a few vices. But we won't go there.

What can be said in New Year's rhymes,

That's not been said a thousand times?

The New Years come, the old years go,

We know we dream, we dream we know.

We rise up laughing with the light,

We lie down weeping with the night.

We hug the world until it stings,

We curse it then and sigh for wings.

We live, we love, we woo, we wed,

We wreathe our prides, we sheet our dead.

We laugh, we weep, we hope, we fear,

And that's the burden of a year.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

I wish you all a Happy and Blessed New Year!