A new start...

... a blank page, a New Year.

Next to Thanksgiving, I think my favorite celebration is the New Year. It is wonderful to me to be able to 'begin again.' I am starting a new sketchbook; the large Moleskin. My plan, goal, resolution is to sketch something in it as often as I can (hopefully, daily.) And I plan to sketch things that I love. A sort of 'gratitude sketchbook.'

It may be a challenge to begin it today, as I still have my four grandchildren here, with all of their parents and my parents, as well. Twelve of us in all. We have been having a wonderful, wild time over the holidays. We ended up the year last night with 'game night.' Jenga and a made up game with Play Doh for the small set, and Chicken Foot and Apples to Apples for the adults. If you've never played Jenga with two three-year-olds, a barely four-year-old and a six-year-old, you should open your lives to that experience. It is a loud and fun one!

I look forward to my new year. I look forward to filling the blank pages of my crisp new sketchbook. I look forward to warping my looms and filling them with colorful weft. Looking forward is what this day is all about, and I am hoping for the best future possible for all of those I love.

Happy New Year, and may joyful, hopeful creations come from us all in this year. If we fill our little parts of the world with Joy and Hope, surely if will make a difference in the world as a whole.

That is my hope for the New Year, at any rate.