Outside every day

Gorgeous, day after day after day. Winter brings the best sunrises and sunsets, with bright colors and high contrast. We have taken a daily walk or hike (once we all got over the flu), I’ve gone regularly to the gym since Thanksgiving, and I’m eating well and feeling pretty fabulous. I choose a word each year instead of a resolution; lightness was last year, and this year is brave, for many reasons. But the light remains.

Happy Holidays

This tree is ridiculously us. Felix Navidad, the Year-Round Holidays Ficus, swathed in outdoor Christmas lights because the fairy lights busted. Decked with ornaments representing every era, and all the loved ones, of our lives. Surrounded by an overabundance of stuffies and presents for the past month. Colorful. Exuberant. Radiant. Alive.

Sending Felix’s light to you and yours this beautiful holiday season, and always.

Obsession

We all laugh watching Audrey with her ball. She would chase it for thirteen hours straight if someone would throw it. When you stop, she takes it away and chomps on it, but eventually tries to entice you to join the game again, rolling it toward you with her nose, quivering in anticipation. She ALWAYS retrieves it, sometimes racing to where it’s headed even before you’ve released it, anticipating like an NFL receiver. She starts with this serious, alert face:

And ends manic, wild-eyed, and tongue-lolling:

I’ve teased her about her obsession…but at the same time, I know no one who has gotten faster or more precise with anything over time to match her. She is grace, athleticism, and flow state.

(Trying to take panning photos of someone as fast as her…not a flow state, but fun.)

So…maybe it’s not obsession, but dedication? I once spent every single day for a year doing yoga; and my body is still flexible and eases back into my practice even after long breaks to this day. I once spent every single day for a year taking photographs…and when I remember everything that did for me (both behind the camera and even when I set it down), I think I have a project for 2025. I’m not promising to post every day, but I will try to take a photo every day and share sets of “fave five”s when I’ve got them.

Welcome!

Lightness.

Every year, instead of making resolutions, I pick a word. I actually don’t remember which word I picked in January, but at some point this year I knew lightness was the word I needed and I went with that.

Lightness is what I craved, and what I made happen. I jettisoned subscriptions, clothing, and knick-knacks. Intoxicated by lightness, I’m about to delete my social media and I’ve cancelled Amazon Prime.

With all the time (and money) this saves me, I’m earning a photography certificate, reading more fiction than I have in years, regularly cooking from scratch, working out at a gym, planning to get my yoga teacher credential, and now creating a web site.

I’m dancing a lot again.