Happy new year!

These are some of the photos I have taken, although not just recently, at the Raleigh Little Theater Rose Garden, at Sarah P. Duke Memorial Gardens, and in my own garden.

Back in upstate New York, where I grew up, I would spend our most dreary winter days pouring over flower catalogs and magazines. I couldn’t wait for spring to come when I could dig in the warm earth of the garden again. My garden was one of my favorite things in the world.

Last night, I thought I only had one resolution for New Year’s: to answer the rest of my email that I hadn’t answered yet. But, this morning, I decided I needed a new resolution: to start over, and to start over every day if necessary. I’ve realized that I am tired of dragging around my yesterdays. I love so many of my yesterdays, but I spend too much time thinking about the ones I don’t love as much. Those have to go.

I have dwelled on sadness, and on people who have been selfish and cruel, but I accept that they have nothing to do with me. I don’t want to think about them anymore either. I know that I have love to give, and I believe there are good people who have love and kindness to share as well. I hope to find more of them.

I want to dwell on beautiful things, and create beautiful things. I want to have hope. I want to do the best I can do, and know that I have done the best I could do. I know I try to. Mostly, I want to believe that there are good things to come, happiness, good health, love, and peace. I wish this for you too. Happy new year, everyone.

“Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these…Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field…shall he not much more clothe you…?”-Matthew 6:28-30