The world is round and the place which may seem like the end may also be only the beginning. – Ivy Baker Priest

I love this quote because it is good for the new year, but also it is just like any good book.

Taking a page out of Janet Reid’s book, or blog: Here are eight things I loved in 2008, in no particular order.

1. I love that not only did I set a goal to learn to knit, but I did learn to knit, and I found it so enjoyable. It’s kind of like magic. You take a string and you can turn it in to things. For now, my “things” are mostly scarves, headbands, and dishrags, but it’s still very exciting. And in 2009, I’m going to finish my first sweater and learn to make socks. Knitting has also helped me with my writing because it leaves me free to rest my mind when I need to, and to plot at other times.

2. I love living in my new home, town, and country. We arrived here in late fall 2007, so this was our first full year here and I wake up every single morning feeling happy and blessed to be here with my husband, new friends, kitties, deer, trees…etc. And the two things I love most about our home is that it is filled with the good smells of cooking and that almost every day it overflows with music.

3. Sunday Soup – In May we opened our house to friends every Sunday afternoon for vegetarian soup and bread. We have had as many as 22 people come one Sunday and as few as one person. Sunday Soup has changed my life in ways I could not have predicted. I’m a better cook, I have more friends, my house is cleaner (all week, not just on Sundays), and I look forward to carrying this on into 2009 and beyond.

4. I love that in 2008 my husband picked up a camera seriously again. He has recorded bits of our island life on his photo blog, taken numerous author photos of me, and even started selling prints again. I love that it makes him glow when he gets the photo he wants. I love that it has slowed down our walks, and that I often find myself standing by the side of the road looking up at the sky or following a bird with my eye while I wait for him to take a picture.

5. I love that in 2008 I saw someone who had a writer buried inside her and I nudged it out of her and she’s writing now. You know who you are. This makes me happy.

6. I love that in the nick of time I learned once again to change myself if things are bothering me (see post below about the path of least resistance). Maybe this time the lesson will stick!

7. I love that in the last weeks of 2008, Malcolm Gladwell’s philosophy and ideas about success, which he writes brilliantly about in The Outliers, came my way. It’s fascinating to see that not only are the people in my life right now (my agent, my editor, my critique group, my mum, and especially my husband) partially responsible for the fact that Restoring Harmony will become a book, but that generations of relatives are also part of my successes. You can carefully take apart my life, my history, and see where and how and why I became a writer. Here’s a tiny example: When my grandmother was young, living on a farm in Montana, her father used to “borrow” her Zane Grey books and even if my grandmother was right in the middle of reading one, she’d have to wait until he finished because once he started, he couldn’t stop. An adult reading kids books… and here I am writing kids books. I love that.

8. And last of all, I love that I am so blessed that if I were to set my mind to it, I could probably write a list of 2008 things I love and am grateful for. Starting with my husband. Two nights ago, a dear friend died suddenly of a heart attack. Tell the people you love that you love them every single day. The beauty, and sometimes the tragedy, of life is its uncertainty.

Happy New Year to you all…I am blessed because of you.