Happy New Year 2013!

Wow - my first time to write '2013'.

Wow - I didn't realize it had been so many weeks since I wrote anything here (December 10).

Wow - it's time to change the photo at the top of my blog, even though there are reports of sandhill cranes still hanging around my county this winter, even with our snow and most ponds and marshes being frozen now.

I re-read some of my posts tonight with the Birds tag, each one being like meeting up with an old and new friend, all at once. I especially liked reading what I wrote last year on New Year's Eve, which was about traveling, journeys ahead, valuing friendship, food, cheer, and song.

Tonight I read a quote by Wendell Berry about journeys to come that seemed an appropriate way of thinking for starting a new year.


‎"You have been given questions to which you cannot be given answers. You will have to live them out - perhaps a little at a time.' And how long is that going to take?' I don't know. As long as you live, perhaps.' 

That could be a long time.' I will tell you a further mystery,' he said. 'It may take longer." 

~~ Wendell Berry (from his novel Jayber Crow, 2001)

Life is complex for each of us, no matter how long or short, with many questions and situations that may seem unfair and burdensome, for which answers are not clearly obvious or easy. A cancer diagnosis certainly fits that description.........however, there are countless other questions and situations just as unfair, unpleasant, and difficult to understand.

My hope for all my readers is that your journey during 2013 shows answers to your questions while living life to the fullest level that is possible for you, that your journey lets you find hope but also peace and joy. Live your life as deeply as the sky above is wide and high. Look, pay attention, open your heart, have mercy, share joy with someone else, then pay it forward again.

While watching endless commercials last night and today focused on weight reduction (without much of a mention of health), I suspect that most of my readers might be more focused on working toward the health of their soul, their spirit, as beneficial to their over-all health and well being, which sounds like a New Year's resolution I could support!  (I plan to read the novel by Wendell Berry mentioned above during the 3 months I have to read for pleasure. Other suggestions?)

All my best wishes to my readers for 2013!

Cultivate your life - you are what you grow - inch by inch, row by row, no matter how long it takes, 

Diana Dyer, MS, RD