The View from Here

Dan and I rang in the new year in our favorite way- in the peace of our home with the animals, a healthy dinner, a yummy cocktail, and to bed early. The perfect introvert celebration, filled with meaningful reflection about the year and decade past and hopeful dreams for our future. There has been so much to be grateful for, even amidst the challenges.

We couldn’t help but ruminate on 2020 and its correlation to vision and seeing 20/20 (two of our dearest friends in the world are optometrists). Our wish is to live this new year seeing our blessings more clearly, continuing to build habits that will help us to live healthy and productive lives. Making our little part of the world better in any small way that we can. These gestures don’t have to be grand; just do your best to be a good human, help where you can, be kind, be compassionate. Those small things have ripple effects that can touch people’s lives in ways you’d never imagine. Pretty magical when you think about it, isn’t it?

I am excited about the future, and so is Dan. We have goals in place and dreams to guide us. We call our beloved home (built in 1920), our Chez Gainey, ‘the home that love built’, a house that we beat the odds to buy and that we’ve poured blood, sweat, and tears into for almost seventeen years now. It has paid us back exponentially in ways we’d never imagined; our oasis. This old house taught us that together we can do anything we put our minds to as long as it’s done with love and courage. The possibilities truly seem endless.

I woke up early on New Year’s Day and decided to start the year off with a long walk/run with Marley up on the Vulcan Trail on the mountain above our house. There were a very few people there, so for the most part it felt as if we had the trail to ourselves as we enjoyed the beautiful views of the city. I made a vow to make the steep climb up there more often this year. Such a great place to think and feel renewed gratitude for my home and my life.

I hope that 2020 will be a year of clarity, a year of hope and growth. I have lots of work to do, but I feel energized and ready for the challenges ahead. I open my heart and mind to all that awaits us. I wish the same for you- thank you for reading and following along on my journey. I see great things ahead for us all.

Happy New Year!