Welcome to a brand new year! It’s the first few minutes of 2018 and I’m cuddling my 80-pound labrador retriever and watching a DVD of the Royal Ballet’s Sleeping Beauty. There is a heck of a lot of noise going on outside, fireworks and happy hollering. It’s fine for those folks and I wish them well but Fred, my black lab, is just not having it and wants his mommy. Carboy is down with a Christmas cold so I’m just glad that coughing isn’t keeping him up; it will still be the first day of the new year tomorrow when he wakes up. I’m just sitting here thinking about how very blessed I am and have been this year. There have been quite a lot of things that I didn’t get to do – like restarting ballet classes – and lots of things that I relished – amazing travel and dance and meeting awesome people. I’ve learned a lot this year and made some great strides in my life. I’ve been pushed into making some decisions that will affect 2018 and I’ve made some very determined decisions about other things that will also mold the coming year. Overall, I’m overcome with a great feeling of hope and if there was one thing that I could share with you today on this first page of 2018 it would be just that, a great hope for the days to come and a passion for discovering and celebrating joy in every one of those days.

All will be well,

~Lorry,    Bead109