A Year in Review

2010, now just a memory.  It was a year of change, challenge and adventure.  I began the year by retiring after working since I was thirteen.  I had a vision and I had a plan for it, but it was quite an adjustment.  I still wake up at 4:30 in the mornings.  I do miss work, but I have new goals to achieve, a new direction to follow.


I fulfilled a dream--take a BIG road trip, visit all my brothers and sisters, scattered over the west, and revisit places from my past--my growing up years.  I spent a month on the road, and loved every minute of it.  My biggest concern--getting lost--was alleviated by Garmin.  She kept me on track.  I saw wondrous things--snow covered mountains in July, lava flow ribbons that looked like they were laid down just yesterday, Mount St. Helen, still desolate thirty years later.  I walked in the steps of the pioneers along the Oregon Trail, and along the beach after a summer storm. I took a step back in time and visited the ranch where I grew up, the little county school I attended, and my high school and college. I relived those memories of growing up in the west.

I added to my family--my grandson who just celebrated his nineteenth birthday now lives with me.  My daughter became engaged to the boy who used to live across the street.  So my family's circle will enlarge again.

I am now able to pursue my art endeavors,  I can dream, create, and express as I am led. However, I still have to wash dishes, and clean the bathroom--this keeps me humble.

So 2010 was a great year, but in the words of Rainer Rilke, that famous Bohemian poet--
               And now let us welcome the New Year,
               Full of things that have never been.