“Do not dim your compassion, your love, or your kindness in this life. Be exactly who you are and let darkness run from the power of your life everywhere that you go.” ~ Stacie Martin
MAAAAAX!
I didn’t realize until I sat down to make today’s post that I used a coffee mug in the first outhouse post on January 1, 2012. Now, apart from that, there are significant differences between that post and this one. For starters, the first coffee mug was a gift from my beloved Lance that said, “Believe in Peace.” I still use the mug, but not today. Today’s mug was a Christmas gift from Stacy. It’s The Grinch, which just makes me giggle out loud when the first mug says to “believe in peace.” But let’s remember that the Grinch’s heart grew, and he did eventually come to believe in peace. The second point is, in the first post, I mentioned Larry Scott Evans, who had sent an exquisite notebook with encouraging words to make art. Over the past two days, I’ve exchanged messages with Larry about everything from retirement to, you guessed it, creating art. We’re both to the age now that retirement is closer than it was 15 years ago, so we have a lot to talk about. But unlike the art I sat down to make 15 years ago, today’s art has been cooking and baking bread and watching the earliest episodes of the Great British Baking Show. In fact, I’ve watched the entire second season today as I cooked, and I learned a lot from both. Lastly, even though the outhouse post today and the post 15 years ago both include a photo with a coffee mug, the two photographs were taken with very different cameras. In 2012, I used my first digital camera, a Canon 40D (I think), but today I was slouchy and used my iPhone. Because I have to downsize all the outhouse photos to save space, you almost can’t tell they were shot with different cameras. That speaks to how much iPhone cameras have improved in 15 years. It also tells me how much better the Canon and Sony cameras I use today have improved. So, there you have my New Year’s Day thoughts. I’ve had some great conversations, made some delicious food, had loads of doggo snuggles, and watched the poor Rose Parade floats wilt under too much rain. It’s now time to dream of tomorrow’s menu and figure out how to bake something new… or maybe leave the house. We’ll see what tomorrow brings, but for today, I am grateful.
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