It’s 2015 Year in Review. I gladly welcome 2016. There were ups and there were downs, but now there’s a bright new beginning–once again–a brand new stinkin’ year to roll around in, to turn up heels and plow in…to undo and do over–again.
Thank, God, for new beginnings!
How was your year, now looking back?…Did it go a little sideways? You know, it’s okay if it did.
Did you sort of, kind of, put them in a book–the “ups” that now make up some of the sweetest memories you’ll keep?
Bound on your fingers and written upon the tablet of your heart? (Proverbs 7:3)
Did you play in the first snow, and build a snowman?
Did you cram and press pie dough for crust into a plate without having used a rolling pin or utensil, just used your hands like you were in cave days?
Was it a good applesauce pie?
Did you make your own cabbage kraut,
then put it into spaghetti?
Did you opt for Kale Chili Bean Spaghetti instead?
Did you peel turnips to fry in butter with mint,
and serve with eggs and coffee for a hearty breakfast?
Did you welcome the morning sun with an early rise and smile
and fresh eggs and bacon on the stove?
Did you make an asparagus egg-bake for Spring?
Did you watch the trees bud, then bloom…
and take a drive in the country a time or two? Did you take in the wonder of Spring, the wonder of life, the purpose…
Did you put popcorn on cupcakes?
Did you cook a chuck roast with kohlrabi blooms for the nutrition and experience of it? How was that?
Did you grow rhubarb for the first time ever?
Did you yellow-up golden potatoes with turmeric,
then turn left over mashed potatoes into fried cakes?
Did you bread a ham steak and drizzle rose honey with Don Juan rose petals?
How was your taco salad?
Did you wrap corn ears with bacon,
or weave bacon over a beef loaf to make a grilled fatty?
Did you smell the lilacs,
take time to put them in dessert for a delicious frosted coconut cake?
Did you cook Turmeric Chicken?
Did you pick gooseberries
and raspberries?
Was it a fruitful summer?
Did you repaint the kitchen
and do all those crazy repairs?
Did you celebrate the summer and the 4th of July with a town parade? Did you honor your veterans and firefighters, town leaders and police force? Did you express your American pride with spirit, and display your love for humanity?
Were you of service?
Did you remain connected with your roots, with your family?
Was it the purest blessing, the one true honor, a moment of giving?
Did you study the life of bees?
Did you take in the beauty of nature,
and feed nature?
Did you bake a broccoli casserole in the heat of summer?
Did you make pie from Concord grapes,
grow and pick them from your vines for a late harvest, of unripe grapes–
as well as ripe ones?
Did you make jelly before the season was gone?
Did you collect locust shells? Why would you need hair pins?!
Did you enjoy the outdoors?
Was it of wonder and splendor?
Did you feel like a child again? And were you?
Did you cook outside and grill out much of the time?
Was it a recipe from your childhood that you savored?
Were there many good days?
Did you watch a setting sun on most evenings?
Were the dragonflies fluttering about?
Did you brew hibiscus tea
from large blooms from your own backyard?
Did you take plenty of pictures? Lots, or not enough?
Did you take the sour with the sweet and give it your best shot? Was it worth it?
Did you enjoy the autumn?
Did you adjust to the cold season with a good soup or pasta dish?
Did you gather seeds in the Fall to save for next year’s planting?
Did you combine lentils in a cottage pie, with cornbread, making it a flavorful and fulfilling meal?
Did you cook a good ham with plumcot preserves?
Did you bake a bundt cake with chocolate and butternut squash?
Did you wear a vintage apron when you got your fingers in the flour
for a cranberry pie? Was it a festive occasion?
Did you make the most of your year with a grateful thanksgiving of what you’ve been blessed with; but most of all… with family?
May the Lord’s blessings be upon you in 2016. May you love, live, and prosper.
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