“It is the life of the crystal, the architect of the flake, the fire of the frost, the soul of the sunbeam. This crisp winter air is full of it.”
~ John Burroughs
A Crisp Winter
WINTER
LOOKING FORWARD…..
Resolutions 2019
We’re in the last few days of vacation slowly preparing to get back into the busy days of school and work. It has been nice to wake up to the sun peaking through the blinds. No alarms, no rush to get ready just easing into the day. Some days grey and rainy but wonderful just the same. It has been nice binge watching new and old television shows, movie and game nights galore. Few early evenings were spent in the kitchen making sweet potato pies and chocolate cookies that rarely made it to the next day. Ending 2018 was spent with ones I love hanging on with heaving eyes trying to make it to midnight. If you’re wondering I did in-fact make it. I could not have asked for better people to spend that time with.
In this morning of 2019 I am excited about the things to come. The positive changes of life as if I am seeing the new year with the optimism of youth. In looking forward to the new and exciting magic of life sometimes we must look backward taking inventory of things that helped shape our present and exhale in serenity that we’ve made it through. I will spare you the exhausting details as there are so much I am still going through and learning to process. I will tell you there has been loss, near loss, injuries, weddings, and births. Life has its way of serving curve balls nearly knocking you off its axis testing your balance. May be that is what I am still needing to find. That “perfect” balance. To help keep me focused I decided this year I would share my 2019 Resolutions to not only put my intentions into the universe as they say (speaking them into existence) but to find them and hold myself to it. I am typically a quiet goal setter, a shy goal setter. As one of my resolutions states it is time to do more of the things I dreamed of, to step out of my comfort zone.
Here are my resolutions in no particular order:
- Read more (never stop learning)
- Watch less television
- Write more
- Help my daughter navigate the trials of youth
- Take weekend trips – explore more of the Pacific Northwest
- Get back to Yoga
- Meditate
- Less is more (learn to live with less)
- Waste less
- Shop small – Buy local and with purpose
- Define my style as a photographer
- Execute photo ideas for portraits of cousins
- Cook more
- Save money (for travel and a house)
- Learn to be more comfortable sharing my life
- Open online shop
- Work on professional goals
- Step out of my comfort zone
- De-clutter – get rid of “stuff”
- Nourish my daughter’s creativity
- Love more -forgiveness
Remembering Winter: in Black and White
“Winter lingered so long in the lap of Spring that it occasioned a great deal of talk.”
~ Bill Nye
As we’ve entered into Spring, the magnolia trees reminding us its beauty, schools on their breaks, and sun giving hints to warm days head. Within all of this lingering is the continuous cold days hinting back at the humbling few moments the furnace stopped working (thank goodness for fireplaces and space heaters), car doors frozen shut, and the Christmas Eve snowfall that filled many childhood dreams. As calming and reflecting this past Winter has been I am ever so happy to the warmer Spring days ahead.
At the Sugar Factory
“It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them”
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Sunday was the start of my birthday week with two of my favorite gals treating me to a brunch at the Sugar Factory. I have no doubt I consumed enough sugar for two days. We started off with drinks, of course. The drinks themselves seemed like a desert. A sparkling cocktail was garnished with hibiscus flower, a yummy caramel macchiato martini topped high with whip cream and for me a red velvet martini with a rim decorated in cream cheese frosting. Talk about a desert! We ate. We talked. We laughed and poked fun at each other in a way only friends with a long history do. It was a perfect way to end the weekend and a lovely way to start my birthday.
Winter Fog
“LIVE TO THE POINT OF TEARS…”
~ Albert Camus
Othello Forty Eight 