Happy New Year!

On the first day of the new year, I caught this image of a sailboat offshore, and followed it with my phone’s camera, and then with my eyes. It slipped away, as a good dream might, just before you awaken. Where was it going? Where had it been? In all things, it offered such possibility.

The sailboat instantly became my 2018 mascot.

The year stretches wider than any ocean, for after all, the sea we travel is that of our orbit around the sun, and we’ve just completed one of those journeys. Here we sail again. At times, a good wind will blow our way, and we will coast along, skimming, chasing our dreams, and maybe catching them! At other times, we may sit, becalmed, listless, in the doldrums, and without much inspiration. And we may face storms that threaten to capsize us. But we must hold fast. The adventure awaits!

I do not make New Year resolutions. We’re working on an arbitrary, chosen calendar to mark our travel around Sol. I like to make my own rules for how to tuck the old year in, dry dock it, as it were. And now I’m taking the new year out on the sea. I’m readjusting to the increasing daylight, which even this soon, becomes noticeable. I begin to eat fewer cookies, and I walk a little more. It’s best to do this gradually, I think. No sense burning out. The wind will fill the sails soon enough.

I will say, related to all this sailing analogy, I do intend to get out on the water more this year. And I’ll be on the road quite a bit, once the car is shipshape. I’ll be on foot constantly, and I look forward to that as much as anything.

Of course, I will be writing! So watch this space.

I wish you a year of fair winds, and a horizon full of possibility.

Image Credit: Sailboat by J. Dianne Dotson Copyright 2018