HAPPY NEW YEAR: A Photographic Review of My Blog
“There are better things ahead than any we leave behind.” C. S. Lewis
“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
It is the end of 2018. How did that happen? So quickly? Maybe it’s because I am getting older, but the years seem to fly by faster and faster. This year, I am accepting the Lens Artist Photo Challenge to complete a Photographic Review of 2018.
I started 2018 with a blog celebration of Winnie the Pooh. His friendly, endearing philosophy is a great way to approach any new endeavor.
Throughout most of the year, I spent my days doing typical things like housework, cleaning out closets, sorting old photographs. Of course, I watch the news and lament the problems and disasters that are reported too often, but I try to stay away from the craziness of fake news and inane and insane commentary on social media. I also visit with family and friends, read lots of novels (mostly murder mysteries) and watch lots of television and movies. None of those activities tend to make it to my blog. Occasionally I will write a post about a past experience or review a book or movie, but not very often.
As I review my blog for 2018, it becomes apparent what is important to me: Nature. Being in nature offers a grand travel adventure as well as a chance to enjoy solitude and embrace the spirituality that is at the heart of the natural world. I did not travel very far in 2018—Oregon was the furthest I ventured. But every trip included beautiful colors and remarkable scenery.
In the Spring, I enjoyed the local area, visiting such places as the Fresno Blossom Trail and the Wind Wolves Nature Preserve. Just driving through the hills is a wonderful afternoon.
I also drove to wine country to visit Sugarloaf Ridge State Park and Anadel State Park, looking for spring flowers.
In the summer, I took a trip to Oregon, seeing what color was still in bloom at places like Crater Lake and the Mount Hood Scenic Drive.
CRATER LAKE
Surprises are always fun, like finally seeing some sunflowers in the field and discovering Priscilla Dragon Princess along I-5.
In the fall I made my usual trek to the Bishop area, looking for the golds and reds of the season, and took a short drive into Kings Canyon. I also drove the Tioga Road and visited Yosemite Valley. The colors were glorious!
TIOGA ROAD/HIGHWAY 120
YOSEMITE VALLEY
This review has reminded me how lucky I am to have the health and finances needed to enjoy my travels. Any new year that includes such natural wonders would be a remarkable adventure! I do not have travel plans set yet for the next 12 months, but I know I will visit beautiful places. For now, I am content to be home, relishing the treasures of the past and anticipating the wonders of the new year.
Over the years, I have learned that it is our attitude that most impacts the future and helps the new year live up to its challenges and opportunities. I am not setting official resolutions, other than to embrace change and work to help make the world better. I hope you too can determine your priorities and then live life with those in mind—and have a wonderful new year!
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Quotes about Having a Great New Year
“Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering ‘it will be happier.’” Alfred Lord Tennyson
“Cheers to a new year and another chance to get it right.” Oprah Winfrey
“Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.” Benjamin Franklin
“We will open the book. Its 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
“May the New Year bring you courage to break your resolutions early! My own plan is to swear off every kind of virtue, so that I triumph even when I fail!” Aleister Crowley
“We spend January 1st walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives. . . not looking for flaws, but for potential.” Ellen Goodman
“Each New Year, we have before us a brand new book containing 365 blank pages. Let us fill them with all the forgotten things from last year—the words we forgot to say, the love we forgot to show, and the charity we forgot to offer.” Peggy Toney Horton
“Past and Present I know well; each is a friend and sometimes an enemy to me. But it is the quiet, beckoning Future, an absolute stranger, with whom I have fallen madly in love.” Richelle E. Goodrich
“What the new year brings to you will depend a great deal on what you bring to the new year.” Vern McLellan
“Your success and happiness lie in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.” Helen Keller
“I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes. Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re doing something.” Neil Gaiman
“A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work.” Colin Powell
“New Year’s Day. A fresh start. A new chapter in life waiting to be written. New questions to be asked, embraced, and loved. Answers to be discovered and then lived in this transformative year of delight and self-discovery. Today carve out a quiet interlude for yourself in which to dream, pen in hand. Only dreams give birth to change.” Sara Ban Breathnach
“Let our New Year’s resolution be this: We will be there for one another as fellow members of humanity, in the finest sense of the word.” Goran Persson
“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” Albert Einstein
“Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” Steve Jobs
Learn More Every Day 