Out with the old, in with the new

Good morning Folks,

Here we are at the end of one year and the start of another. First, I want to say thank you all for your blogs that you've created from your hearts and souls. Thanks for your visits and encouraging and inspiring comments to my blog. I look forward to a new year of visiting, inspiration, and learning with all of you.

I'm not one to make new year resolutions, because, as soon as you say you are going to do something, stuff happens to keep you from doing them. Yes, we can have goals, and we have desires, but to say we are going to do them or make them happen, often leads to disappointment. Other times, we are pleasantly surprised as to what has been accomplished throughout a year.

I hope to be more content with my life. Hope to enjoy the gift of each new day, living life fully in any given moment. I hope to age gracefully and go with the flow instead of worrying and fretting so much about this and that, which may or may not happen.

I also want to care less about what is 'hip or in'. I don't go along with trends anyway, but, you can't help but feel like you're not 'with it' if you don't have the latest this or that. It's not what we have, but who we are and how we live our lives that matters.

Getting back to Christmas for a moment. Someone posted a comment they read in a design magazine (I think that was the gist), that you should not use red or green in your decorating, but the colors that go with your home decor. For Pete's sake. There is always someone out there trying to tell us how we should live and spend our money. We should be living from our hearts, not a list of shoulds of shouldn'ts by whoever.

We do NOT have to follow trends of any kind to be content. Being a follower does not mean you are on the right path for your life. Living a life that makes you feel thankful, one where you can sleep peacefully at night is a life worth living. We do not have to get into debt, or have bigger and better. If we just get rid of some of what we have, things that no longer give us joy, or that we no longer use or wear, our homes and our lives will feel larger.

As this new year begins may you all feel peace, love and joy in your lives. May you see things that you might make changes in or not, things or ideas that will help you live a better life, physically, mentally and spiritually.

Each day is a gift and it is up to us to decide how we will accept and use it.

I look forward to ~ a year of puttering inside and outside of our little cottage. To a year of labor and sweat for the delights from our gardens. To a year of daily gifts, being content and thankful for our many blessings. To a year of loving and living with my DH.

May 2011 be a year of blessings for all of you.

Here are some rose blooms taken this morning I thought you'd enjoy.















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And in the end,
it's not the years in your life that count.
It's the life in your years.
Abraham Lincoln

All the art of living
lies in a fine mingling
of letting go and holding on.
Havelock Ellis


God asks no man whether he will accept life.
That is not the choice.
You must take it.
The only question is how.
Henry Ward Beecher

Life can be found only in the present moment.
The past is gone,
the future is not yet here,
and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment,
we cannot be in touch with life.
Thich Nhat Hanh

Life is a succession of lessons,
which must be lived to be understood.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

***

Happy New Year

Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL