Celebrating the Old Year

Happy New Year! Celebrating the new year is a means for looking back and looking ahead. I gave up making new year’s resolutions years ago, but an appealing idea is Celebrating the Old Year and acknowledging small moments I remember (and in some cases wrote about) in 2022.

The new year offers ways to improve myself and support the communities I care about. It also creates opportunities for reflection on things that made me smile:

• Seeing my kitties’ quiver butts of excitement when they are about to be fed
• Listening to the calls of cow elk to their babies, and vice versa
• Noting the first pink light from sunlight on the Continental Divide
• Discovering mountain lion tracks along a trail
• Bubbles rising in ice on an alpine lake
• Sensing the wiggly bottoms of happy dogs
• Clouds that look like an image of something
• Warm creamy hot chocolate
• The first sip of coffee in the morning
• Coming upon a tiny snowperson on a trail in the park
• My kitties nudging my hand to tell me it is time to get out of bed (and feed them!)
• A snowshoe hare peaking out from his hiding place in the trees
• The stealth sound of goose wings as they fly overhead
• Putting on festive socks each Monday to celebrate “Sock Monday” at the park
• Getting an unexpected call/email/text from someone from my past just to say hello
• Birds delighting on the fresh seeds at the birdfeeder
• Remembering the fun and funny aspects of people who began their unearthly journeys this year
• Hearing a song associated with warm memories from a time long passed
• Wailing on a trumpet fanfare in band
• Anticipating the first sight of the full moon rising
• Stopping and staring at a beautiful landscape
• The seriousness and pride of a child getting sworn in as a Junior Ranger
• And much more…