Did you welcome the New Year?
Did you tally the days according to memory as 2013 being a good year?
Did you take plenty of walks in all seasons?
Did you enjoy the simple things?
Did you discover new ways to live, even in foods, to be adventurous
while keeping a little of the old for practicality?
Did you eat potato chips in a whole different manner– like over sweetened whipped cream on a pie?
Did you purposely take the backroads once in a while?
Did you experience tradition again? Did you treasure what was handed down to you?
Did you get to see colors more vividly?
Did you go back to your roots now and then and remember what it was like being a child? Did you get to watch your children discover the joys of nature, see it again through their eyes?
Did you bake heart cakes for that special somebody?
Did you actually let yourself be a kid again?
Did you try new recipes just for the heck of it?
Did you cook chili in a multitude of ways not only to feed your family but for versatility and flavor, for the many cultures thereof?
Did you take a moment to smell the scent of a Plumeria?
Did you go gourmet?
Did you dry flowers that you received, finding that you’re too sentimental to throw them away when they’re aged?
Did you develop a palette for the spicy side of life?
Did you go way out this year, did you do things up just right?
Did you become a collector of salt and pepper shakers or a collector of– anything– or is it just something that collects dust? Did you keep something?
Did you eat your spinach, just what your parents always told you to do?
Did you fix enough crock-pot meals when on the go?
Did you preserve for the months ahead to savor the goodness of summer?
Did you make an array of pizzas, did you become a chef in your own kitchen?
Did you learn to be crafty, crochet something useful and pretty or did you just knot some thread?
Did you admire the flowers in the spring?
Do you still look at the world in a marvel of wonders of the handiwork of nature? Did you?
Did you make your home a living space, a comfortable place to let down your hair?
Did you enjoy the fury creatures in your world, pet a pet to de-stress on those hectic days?
Did you notice how everything is naturally designed?
Did you make bread–
or break bread? Did you make a baby/have babies?
Did red become your favorite color?
Did you make more than your share of messes?
Did you let yourself enjoy the summer days in the sun?
Did you flower-up a cake?
Did you keep what is vintage?
Did you hide vegetables in pasta?
Did you grow a green thumb?
Did you decide to darn a sock, mend a hole or a ragged tear, or simply create something new?
Did you have cherry pie in a number of ways?
Did you home-make over store-bake?
Did you landscape your yard?
Did you have enough chocolates? Did you make solid plans and keep them?
Did you bake brownies to share with the neighbors?
Did you teach yourself how to cook and bake or did you take classes?
Did you take pretty pictures?
Did you become an avid bird lover?
Did you let yourself eat candy sometimes?
Did you raise strawberries to harvest? Did you keep slugs away?
Did you redefine butter?
Did you order takeout in those days of winter– when it was too windy and cold to go to the store after being sick with the flu?
Were you appreciated?
Did you get married or did you have to say goodbye to someone?
Did you mix fruit with savory?
Did you dry mushrooms, did you become a mushroom farmer in your spare time? Could you even find the spare time?
Did you spend quality time with your children like you want to or should?
Did you put edible daisies on cake frosting?
Did you manage well?
Did you eat your vegetables– all of them?
Did you make a good pie?
Did you celebrate the birthdays of those who mean the most to you? Did you take the time?
Did you have enough quiet time with yourself– and with God… ?
Did you become the master of organization, develop organizational skills to better live in the realms of your own world?
Did you plant fruit trees?
Did you bake the family recipes from your parents, grandparents; from an aunt or a sister?
Did you conduct a bake sale for charity?
Did you see things through a better lens?
Did you get in the habit of preparing breakfast every morning instead of flying out the door in a rush?
Did you try your hand at different salts and fresh spices?
Did you have friends over, did you get to entertain?
Did you bake for a crowd or help out at a soup kitchen?
Did you tell yourself the right stuff? Did you hold on to truth, to what you need to hear?
Did you take good care of yourself?
Did you love all the way?
Did you live out your passions respectively?
Did you gain hope and keep it?
Did you serve others?
Did you capture the good in the bad?
Did you become a decorative diva in your pad?
Did you garden indoors-out?
Did you plan enough picnics and have them rain or shine?
Did you become a saucy individual, an interesting creature of your own habits?
Did you admire the moment, live in the moment, progress in the moment?
Did you prepare well, consider your health, remain balanced as much as possible in all issues?
Did you slice cucumbers that you gardened, yourself?
Did you stew some tomatoes?
Did you grow herbs?
Did you eat enough garlic, have plenty of mouthwash on hand; chew enough gum?
Did you keep the bugs at bay?
Do you bake something funky such as blue velvet cake? Did you choose to be different?
Do you like and appreciate the cool person that you are?
Did you mix it all up, did you keep yourself excitable?
Did you try new things the old way/ try old things a new way?
Did you build a butterfly house?
Did you become a dog owner?
Did you make it a point to do something unusual, try the unusual, be diverse?
Did you have Mexican nights with your favorite beer and your favorite people?
Did you live for the zest; do you?
Did you watch the trees bud in the spring, did you see life happen while living it?
Were you full of heart and are you, still?
Did you discover that aging is being young?
Did you use China more than a couple times a year? Did you let yourself have luxuries year round? What would be wrong with that?
Did you taste the many flavors of mints and utilize them so differently? Did you get to smell them?
Did you take time to sit quietly, watch birds fly to interact with each other– like humans? Did you become a bird watcher educationally?
Did you love something so much that you had to let it go, that you had to give freedom to what made you happy? Did you have to lose somebody? Will your heart forever mourn while you go on loving them… ?
Did you make peanut butter?
Did you value your belonging?
Were you blessed with a new birth? Will you become a new parent, a grandparent in 2014?
Did you remember a story behind every bowl that was given to you?
Did your fingers get pricked? Did you have some thistles?
Did you make a spice bin?
Did you pick enough peaches?
Did you cook with Marigold blooms?
Did you bake with your children?
Did you start a vineyard?
Did you turn something sour into something sweet?
Did you put Hibiscus into barbecue?
Did you eat enough greens?
Did you catch a falling leaf?
Did you savor all those moments of 2013 that melted your heart?
Were you somebody’s angel, were they yours?
— Susan Nuyt
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