It’s a new year, with the some of the same responsibilities. Perhaps, I need a new outlook?

Normally, January 1^st is not the day I choose for resolutions, usually my resolutions fall in early June when school lets out for summer and I have more time to reflect, rest, reset, and restore. But, that is summer or rather ‘some ‘er’ which sounds like summer but means some are – as in some are and some aren’t. Some summers I am more successful with the ‘reflect and reset’ than others. This past summer was one of those in which the reset was not complete. Now, I find myself in the beginning of winter and new fallen snow is beginning to cover the landscape. It brings a new outlook to the world; it’s fresh, clean, pure, and powdery. Ivy tested it earlier and came inside, curled up on the hassock, and went back to sleep. It’s a new beginning, sort of.

new snow, looking south

new snow – looking north, sort of

We rang in the New Year as a family with our friends from the lake in their home outside Detroit. It felt good, it felt normal.

The past year and its losses and change have been hard on us all. In a way it brings us to a new spot, much like fresh snow. If we dig deep enough and uncover the snow, the grass is still there, the lilies will come back in the spring, but for now it has a new look.

It’s the first Saturday in 2015, the last Saturday of winter break, or rather Christmas break. And, it’s the first day of a new outlook. Today is gonna be a great day, I know it and I can feel it, so I’d better jump up, jump in, and seize the day. Making the Days Count, one day at a time.

Happy New Year, what will be new for you?

Today’s post is in response to the Daily Post’s Weekly Photo Challenge prompt on Word Press. It has been a while since I responded to a photo challenge post. I had photos for the last two challenges, Yellow and Warmth, but I didn’t post them.

Warmth – the fire at the cottage

Yellow – Christmas lights in downtown Naperville at dusk – 12/21/14

This week’s challenge is New. Use your photo this week to show us something new-to-you for 2015. It could be a photo that tells us something about your dreams: a place you hope to travel. Something that represents a new goal you’d like to reach — the house you’re saving up for, the gates of a school you’d like to attend, the cover of a magazine you’d love to publish in. Highlight a new person in your life, and all the possibility that relationships contain. Or keep things lower-key, with an image of an favorite gift you received, an inspiring book you just started reading, your new puppy, or the hiking trail you hope to master.

New year. New opportunities. New adventures. Let’s inspire one another — show us what’s new.