Happy New Year - 2025

 Song - Angel From Montgomery by John Prine

Wishing us both a better year than 2024

Here is to beginning again 

Cheers!

"I've learned a lot this year..I've learned that things don't always turn out the way you planned, or the way you think they should. And I've learned that there are things that go wrong that don't always get fixed or get put back together the way they were before. I've learned that some broken things stay broken, and I've learned that you can get through bad times and keep looking for better ones, as long as you have people who love you."  --Jennifer Weiner

It's A New Year

 

I know it's a little late to post about New Year but I have been enjoying 2024 so far and I hope you have too!  Cheers....J

Another Trip Around the Sun

 Song - Feeling Good by Nina Simone

 

 

WELCOME 2022

 

Birds flying high, you know how I feel

Sun in the sky, you know how I feel

Breeze driftin' on by, you know how I feel

 

It's a new dawn

It's a new day....

 

 

and it's a New Year! 

"Nothing ever goes away until it teaches us what we need to know."

-- Pema Chodron

 

 

Twenty-twentyone

Song - Dancing in the Dark by Bruce Springfield

 

 Happy New Year!

Here's to a year when we can hopefully start hugging again.

And dining with family & friends sharing our stories and love.

Hold on tight to the small, important things that make us happy...

...a sunrise...

...puppy love...

....a meal cooked with love...

...a frosty morning spent by the fire...

...a long walk by the ocean...

...live music..

...traveling to far off places and getting to know the people who live there...

...a little cabin in the woods (and I know just the one for me!)...

...a child's laughter...

...a great book...

...a road trip...

...the joy of seeing people smile again!

 

Whatever makes you happy, I hope you find it in this New Year!!!

 

"You are never to old 

to set another goal 

or to dream a new dream."

--C. S. Lewis

 

 

..

twentytwenty-yikes

Song - In the Air Tonight - by Phil Collins Cover by Sierra Eagleson

Today I spent some time reflecting on this past year....2019.  The very best part was becoming a Grandma and watching my son, Andy and daughter-in-law, Ashley grow into amazing parents.  Mr. B and Uncle Tyler bring tears to my eyes as Henry delights them with his happiness and love. I have also felt the dearness of my middle son Jon who phones me and his Grandmother several times a week and has been a rock for his girlfriend though some very tough family times. My mom (almost 91) is so fun to watch caring for her ever growing family.  She has been a true inspiration!

Happy New Year to You

May it bring you Peace, Love and Joy....

"If you're already walking on thin ice, why not dance?"   

-- Gil Atkinson

Twenty-eighteen

Song - Don't Panic by The Hot Club of San Francisco

Best wishes for a great new year!

"Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. Yesterday, everybody smoked his last cigar, took his last drink, and swore his last oath."

--Mark Twain

Coming Back to Center

Song - Celtic New Year by Van Morrison

Twenty-sixteen was a rough year for both me and my family. 

I am looking forward to 2017!

There is a certain ebb and flow to our days and years.

Clarity and confusion.

Joy and suffering.

Finding balance.

Now is the time for me to recenter myself.

Rediscovering that core within me.

The one who knows how to feed my spirit.

Somehow through this last year I have forgotten.

It's not gone but just cast aside.

Learning to remember.

Needing that cue to set time aside daily...

...to work on my inner growth. 

My One Little Word for the year is "centering".

Just so I can 

Create

Journey

Cultivate

Love

and

Replenish.

Happy New Year to you and yours.

"One of the most essential things you need to do for yourself is to choose a goal that is important to you.  

Perfection does not exist--you can always do better 

and you can always grow." 

--Les Brown

December 2015

Song - Auld Lang Syne by the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards


 My December.....

Discovered an illegal squatters shelter  10' from our property line and overlooking our backyard.  Ugg...... Worse yet my neighbor told them they could build it there because they told her it was really a Mountain Lion Lookout.  Mmmmm......

Mr. B and my brother Tim trying to move my dad's workshop

A friend went to Tahoe and sent me this photo 

because she knows I just love snow on trees! 

Pure beauty!

Mr. B and I went to The Dickens Fair to see our friend Sandey Grinn transform himself into Fagin! So amazing!

Mr. B played Santa this Christmas Eve and said it was the best E-V-E-R! 

Dawn on Christmas Day

 My dear dad spent a week in the hospital and came home on Christmas Day.  This car was parked next to mine as I was leaving the hospital on that day. Brought a smile to my face!

We all received great gifts again this year but the two that really stand out were Mr. B's reflective gear for his early morning walks and.......

....and Tyler's Bumper Dumper that is a camo toilet seat that fits into his trailer hitch to be used when he is out in the wilderness - not in my driveway!

Dad is happy to be at home with mom 

and Mika is happy to have someone to snuggle with all day long!

The best way to take care of the future 

is to take care of the present moment.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

Pink Champagne

Ringing in the New Year!

I'm kicking off my shoes and wishing you an incredible 2012. 

Hoping it's one filled with love, peace, joy and clarity!

I am watching "An Affair to Remember" tonight while writing this post before heading out to a get together with friends, old & new.  Cary Grant & Deborah Kerr are drinking Pink Champagne.  It brings back so many memories of years gone by. I love old movies.  It drives my boys crazy.  I don't know what it is but maybe simpler times and sweet endings.

OK, I'm sappy.....

But this morning I am looking forward....with clarity.....and a deep desire for a joyful new year!

Life is so rich.  Hold every moment close.

Mendocino in my twenties...

"New Year's eve is like every other night; there is no pause in the march of the universe, no breathless moment of silence among created things that the passage of another twelve months may be noted; and yet no man has quite the same thoughts this evening that come with the coming of darkness on other nights."  ~Hamilton Wright Mabie

Endings and Beginnings....

Yup....2012 is almost upon us!

For me, this last week has been one for reflecting on what transpired during 2011. 

All of it...the good, the bad and the in between are equally important because they are all teachers in this journey we call "life"!

I have also thought about what changes I hope to see in my life in 2012.  Not huge, drastic transitions but small steps that lead to bigger, more permanent change.  Some of these shifts are very obvious and others need a little deeper thought.


 

Just now while adjusting a load of laundry in the washing machine, my son asked why it was "clonking and moving like it was....what makes it do that?"

I replied "I placed a rug in that load and now the machine is out of balance."

Mmmm....what was my one little word for 2012?   Balance.

Made me think about things, even laundry, going out of balance and how other things need to overcompensate for that lopsided and wobbly part of life.

 

Today is a cold,
gray day
and a good one
for meditating
on what is in
& out of balance
in my life.

 

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”—Mary Oliver