So… it’s New Year’s Eve and the time to reflect on all that’s happened this year and to look forward to whatever may come to pass in the new one.

Or, maybe, you’re less pathetic than I and are out doing something fun tonight!

I’ve always disliked New Year’s Eve and that need to be doing something, anything, other than what I feel like doing, which is typically …. nothing. I’ve usually had enough of the running around associated with the holidays at this point and am starting to think about going back to work and some sense of normalcy to my days. And that makes me want to cocoon myself beneath a blanket and preserve the sense of peace I feel right now – no parties, no relatives, no loud music or false show of cheeriness for the sake of a random day on the calendar.

I would like to thank all of you who come by here to read my ramblings for sharing a part of yourselves with me and enriching my life this past year. Everyday I feel humbled by your generous spirits and so glad for the chance to laugh and cry and be silly with you all. That I should feel connected as I do, to you all and to your lives in some small way, continues to puzzle me as much as it delights me. Anyway… thank you friends.

My wish at year’s end last year was that we should all find hope and beauty in the coming year. I was thinking then about how we sometimes come across those things in unexpected ways, or unexpected places, or even people, sometimes.

So I wondered if I’d done myself what I’d wished for us all to do… had I found hope or beauty in the unexpected? Had I been open enough to the world for that to be possible?

Looking back through the archives here I found these examples of having had my wish for the year:

January was full of beauty, mostly because I hosted the Good Planets show that month.

February brought the unexpected beauty of iceboats on the river.

In March there was hope for spring that came in the form of a witch hazel.

In April I visited the NJ Meadowlands and found beauty there too – certainly unexpected!

May was full of searching out wildflowers, and one special one that I finally found surprisingly close to home.

More flowers in June and the tiniest of beautiful butterflies.

July brought hope in the form of a little pup named Luka. God – was he ever really that small?

In retrospect, August reads like a month of transitions for me mostly, but there was some beauty from the garden, too.

September and the changing season brought a little surprise from the beach.

October had the beauty of skimmers, and buckeyes, and sanderlings. Not to mention the fun of meeting friends come to visit from afar!

There were sanderlings and the faces of friends in November, too and a beautiful day birding at Sandy Hook.

December’s been mostly foolishness, but there was this bit of the unexpected that had me smiling.

So that’s my year-in-review at the tail end of it. A good one, I think, full of nice things to remember. Some sadness, of course, but just enough to make the happy times be appreciated.

Stay safe tonight and be sure to find someone in time for that New Year’s kiss!