Happy New Year!

New Year is my favorite holiday of all. It always has been, ever since I can remember. There’s nothing else like it for me. It’s the perfect holiday in every way. If you’re into New Year, you already know what I mean. If you scoff at resolution-making, finding a burst of unquenchable energy from an otherwise arbitrary day, and think letting yourself start fresh again and again is for the birds, I may not be able to convince you. But try a different way of looking at it. It will be transformational, I promise. ;)  

I started New Year’s Day with a walk through the dark frozen forest before dawn. I had only intended to let Baxter have a run by the lake while I took a few shots of the sun rising on my most special of days, to see the light on the ice, to just to reflect in that perfect still moment of a brilliant new beginning.

But Bax looked at me, saying, “Duuude, why are we stopping? What did we come here for? It’s a brand new year. 2013, man! Let’s go!”

And so we did, all around the lake and through the woods. There must be many equally good ways to start a year, but I believe none could actually be better.  

Later in the morning, I found myself wandering with lovely, like-minded friends at Trustom Pond National Wildlife Refuge on the southern Rhode Island coast—a really terrific place to walk about in any season, but spectacular in winter. (And if you’re into birds, you might well see something new as I did yesterday.) 

 

As I always do there, I paused by this perfect monument to what must have been a life well lived:

I've been thinking a lot recently about how we often tend to rush pivotal moments in our writing, and that will be the subject of a near future blog post, but the same is true for all things. It would be better not to postpone joy, nor to rush it when we find it. The best experiences should be sought with vigor and then savored. 

Happy New Year! 2013. Let’s go!