HAPPY NEW YEAR!

As always, I am behind the times in wishing you a Happy New Year, as most people do so on New Year's Eve or Day.  It takes me a bit longer to traipse into the new year and by now--toward the end of January, I start to feel the new year has truly begun.

Today the outside Christmas lights finally got taken down. (too cold/rainy beforehand);  the garage got cleaned out and re-organized (well somewhat). and things have been made right in my little corner of the world (well mostly).

I always like to use January to get organized for the new year and throw out a bunch of stuff. I tend to be a tosser rather than a saver.  Must come from having moved so much in my life--approximately every 3-4 years.  When you have to move everything you own around, you start to reduce the load.  Of course the moving itself helps you to get rid of things as they get broken, damaged or just plain don't work in the new place.

The days are again growing longer and I love seeing the sun a bit longer each day.  I know that spring will be here soon because in my part of the world it arrives around March.  The days will become warmer and life will be renewed again.

This time of year also seems to find me in a reflective mood.  I guess as you get older, you tend to look backward more than forward on your life.  It surprises me how children have grown up into adults and how friends have gotten so much older looking.  I wonder if I look as old as they do? Probably.

It seems that some of the time life is flying by so fast and at other times I can feel time stretching back like a slinky pulled to its furthest reaches.  Sometimes things in the past seem so long ago and at other times, like only yesterday.    Time is a funny thing, no one can own it.  We can use it, dread it, anticipate it, plan for it, but we cannot own it. We cannot make it move on any schedule other than its own.  It continues to march on, listening to its own drummer, of its own accord.  The only effect we can have on it is how we use it.

Welcome 2017!  I will try to use the time allotted to me in this year as best I can.  It is a diminishing resource at this point in life and so becomes more precious.