Best Pics of 2012

Here are my favorite pics of the last year.  I didn't travel as far as I did 2011, but I still managed to have a decent year.  Not all the photos are great, but they remind of a fun moment or weekend.  Enjoy!

A Cold Welcome to 2013

Jan. 1 2013

I awoke from a deep sleep, huddled tight, knees curled up and arms crisscrossed around my torso.  Instantly I felt coolness in the dark cabin air - fire’s out.  Shit.  Sweatpants were quickly thrown on, along with a stocking cap and headlamp.  On the way to the wood stove, I glanced at the clock on the wall, 1 AM, Happy New Year.  Reaching the stove, I found feeble warmth radiating from the blackened cast iron crucible.  Opening the door, a blast of smoke hit my face, reminding me to open the flue first.  With flue opened, I tried the door again.  This time I saw the gnarled chunk of oak that was tossed in 3 hours ago smoldering.  Grabbing the fire poker, I moved the half-burnt hunk around and found a few coals to rebuild the fire with.  Bone-dry kindling was placed on the red coals.  I waited to make sure they caught before adding larger pieces of the driest, most easily burned popple. 

I stepped outside to a world of quiet slumber, lit by a majestic waning moon, casting its brilliance across the snow-covered landscape.  Smoke had begun to billow from the chimney, pushed gently to the south by the north breeze before falling close to the ground and continuing its southward motion.  It was cold.  The thermometer on the spruce tree out front read -12.  Yep.  I hurried back inside to check the fire. 

The popple was soundly ablaze so I added a few pieces of ash from the woodpile next to the stove.  I closed the stove door, sat down on the chair in front of the stove and turned off my headlamp. 

Moonlight streamed through the window, spotlighting the items that happened to find its gaze; the tics and knocks of the wood stove grew louder as it warmed to life.  A yawn escaped my mouth, reminding me to get back to bed, but I knew better than to trust a nascent fire, I had to stay up for a bit to make sure the fire kept roaring.  Many a promising fires have petered out when the flames realized the wood was wet or punky and refused to go any further.  The gaslight was lit and I sat down at the table to write.  Welcome to 2013.

Ruminations on the New Year

As we stand at the doorstep of 2013, we look out at the virgin year, unspoiled and empty in front of us.  We can also look back at all the successes, mistakes, laughter and sadness that filled 2012.  You may not be where you anticipated being as 2012 came to a close, but this is where you are and there’s nowhere to go but forward.  We are who we are from the road we have traveled and experiences we gained. 

2013 is like a farmer’s field, tucked in with a blanket of snow, waiting for spring to come in a few months and uncover the fertile soil waiting underneath, ready to grow whatever the farmer sees fit.  The field may have grown corn last year, but that doesn’t dictate what it will grow this year, perhaps beans, alfalfa, potatoes, hops or even corn again.  The same is true with our lives.  We have the power to cultivate the year we want.  2013 is open to limitless possibilities.  If you like how 2012 went, and want to continue that into the New Year, the path forward is easy because you’ve walked it before, but changing from the status quo is more difficult, it takes more effort. 

Live the year you want, don’t live the life someone else wants you to live.  Our time here is too fleeting to follow someone else’s prescription.  This is not to say a husband should ignore his wife and do whatever he wants, couples lives are intertwined, but make sure your desires and interests are explored and not languishing in dormancy. 

The blank slate of a new year provides an opportunity to do all the things you’ve been meaning to do over the years, but have left undone.  This is the year to try your hand at homebrewing, to buy a new camera (or learn to use the one you have) and take the photos that have escaped you, to take a trip and see sights that have remained unseen, to learn how to bake a pie like grandma did, to bike to work or volunteer more.  This is the promise, and beauty of a new year.

My year is already beginning to fill with excitement.  Northern Wisconsin is blessed with many beautiful waterfalls that I’ve visited, and had a quiet moment at during the summer months, but I’ve always wondered how they looked draped with snow and ice.  So this year, I’m going on a Wisconsin Winter Waterfall Waltz through the north to check out Copper Falls, Potato Falls, Saxon Falls, Morgans Falls and Big Manitou Falls to name a few (If anyone has a favorite waterfall I should visit, let me know). 

A good friend has been harping on me to write more; using the Stephen King advice of writing 1000 words a day.  I’ve failed miserably at this, going weeks without putting any words on a page, so in 2013 I’m going to make an effort to write everyday.  I may not end the year with 365,000 words, but hopefully I’ll have 365 days worth of words.  Following along this line, I want to get an article printed this year in a publication.  I’m not sure which publication or what the article will be about, but at years end, I want to be able to say I’m a published writer (Mammoth Tales not included).

The New Year allows us to take stock of what worked and what didn’t over the last year, enabling us to continually improve our lives and the enjoyment of those lives.  The turning of the calendar gives us a tool to reset our lives and look to the future.  Enjoy 2013 and make it your best, I know I will. 

I’ll end with a quote from Sigurd Olson, “one of the real tragedies in life is to waste time when there is so much to see and learn.”